Bosses can be Boneheads. We’ve all had one. Some of us have been one. No one wants to work for one, to be sure. Few will follow them very far.
I have worked for boneheads. I have been called a bonehead. And I have probably been the bonehead. I didn’t like operating in either space as all were quite painful!
During the times I worked for less than stellar bosses, I promised myself I would never be such a dork. I knew I could do it better because I had a better understanding about what employees like me cared about and how we wanted to be treated. At least that is how I thought about it.
Discontent with bosses extends beyond the mere boneheads however. Many of those “in charge” have no clue about how their employees think or feel. Some really don’t care. If they would only listen more. If they would just leave us alone to do our jobs. We knew what we were doing and didn’t need someone looking over our shoulders. Most of the time I cared about my followers, but my “style” likely caused them to think differently.
As a follower my assignments were almost always successful. Customers and colleagues seemed to like me. I was dependable, budget conscious and always willing to take initiative. In fact, I was a great employee if I do say so myself! I even had one boss tell me I was the best employee he ever had! With all of this going for me — Mr. wonderful employee — it just never made sense that someone would not let me have the run of the house and of course, pay me more. A lot more please.
Like many followers I thought like this and was full of myself for years. That is until I ascended to the top of the heap and became president. All it took was my first meeting with my first employee to realize that perhaps I may have underestimated what I knew about working from the other side of the oak desk. Over the next several years, I focused on trying to make my employees happy, because I believed happy employees equaled loyal and committed employees. Nope. Unfortunately creating a happy workplace amidst growing workloads, budgets cuts in an organization struggling to survive, is like getting kids to like vegetables when all they want is candy. You almost have to force feed them and the after taste lingers like the wrong kind of onions.
For me the lingering after taste was part bewilderment about why followers would be mean when I was constantly trying to be nice. It took me a couple of years to understand that they took the management decisions I had to make personally. And I guess I would have done the same thing.
Choiceology Blog 