Comments on: Afraid of Your Boss? You Aren’t Alone

By: laurence haughton

laurence haughton — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 21:32:12 +0000

I also didn’t “think” that personality disorders were at the root of a lot of bad bosses either. Then I read the book I cited written by a psychologist, university professor and former military man who researched incompetence and looked for root causes in hundreds of examples disastrous leadership behavior and results.

By: Michael Haberman

Michael Haberman — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 21:07:04 +0000

I don’t think the vast majority of “bad” bosses are due to personality disorders. I think many bad bosses are due to the fact that American business does a very poor job of promoting people into positions based upon their expertise and not their skill in handling people. And they we give them little to no training in dealing with confrontation, performance evaluation, discipline or any other managerial subject. We assume they know what they are doing. And we all know the old saying about “ass-u-me.”

By: Michael Haberman

Michael Haberman — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 20:16:15 +0000

Another tack we could take on this deals with training. My experience has been that not many managers receive training on dealing with people issues. Not all bad bosses are personality disordered, many have not been trained on how to deal with confrontation, poor performing employees, giving feedback, etc. So they fall back on behavior they have seen before. American business does not usually make someone a boss for their people skills, they are made a boss because of their “technical” skills in their area and then are allowed to fend on their own when it comes to the softer stuff.

By: laurence haughton

laurence haughton — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 16:07:09 +0000

Power may not but certainly control goes to seekers. And some of the most motivated seekers are those who need “control” for all the wrong reasons.

By: Rob

Rob — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 12:25:08 +0000

Laurence,
Interesting. So in general, does power go to those who seek it instead of those who would use it best? For politicians, I would say yes, but I hadn’t thought of it in the context of business.

By: laurence haughton

laurence haughton — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 02:01:07 +0000

Or… here’s a thought I borrowed from “On the Psychology of Military Incompetence,” perhaps “bad” people (as in people with serious defects in their personalities) are highly attracted to positions in business management. So they flatter and pontificate their way to a corner office and then let their sad personal issues rain down on everyone below.