Posted in Blog
You may be a bad boss, or you may work for one. Either way, your company suffers as a result. If you’re the boss, you may not realize you’re a problem. Or you may understand your shortcomings, but for whatever reason, you’re not getting any better. By being a bad boss, you may be sabotaging your efforts to have a better run, more profitable business.
The Hartford’s Small Biz Ahead has many warnings for bad bosses. Here are seven ways being a bad boss hurts your business:
- You don’t communicate.
You may have a great vision for your business and excellent ideas about how it should be run. If you don’t effectively communicate with your employees, who will know about them? You’re not sharing your plans and won’t listen to ideas that employees offer. It’s your business, but that doesn’t mean you’re the only one with good ideas. As a result, employees may feel more like spectators or robots who do what they’re told. They may have lousy morale, and you may suffer from high turnover.
- You don’t get help when you need it.
Running a business requires many skills, and they’re constantly changing. What you became an expert at five years ago may not be of much use today. Being a jack of all trades means you’re a master of none. For you and your business to succeed, you may genuinely need to master some skills. That means delegating some tasks to others, whether they’re employees or your hire an outside contractor. It’s not a cost; it’s an investment in yourself that may handsomely pay future dividends.
- You’re insecure
It’s OK to be insecure. You’re not a superhero. You own a business. But you need to get a handle on your insecurities and minimize them. Understand your shortcoming and hire people who excel where you lack. Get smart people who can contribute to your business in different ways. Build a team of players whose skills complement each other. If your insecurities include needing attention all the time, those who make big contributions may get tired of your need to be in the spotlight. They may end up leaving, and they’ll contribute to other companies.
- You’re a bully
This is one of the most alarming ones of the seven ways being a bad boss hurts your business. If so, you are insecure and need help. Bullies build themselves up by tearing others down. Someone not doing what you tell them, how you tell them, literally makes your blood boil. Your employees need predictability and security to do well. If you’re randomly being nice to people then chewing heads off in front of others, you’re creating chaos, not an atmosphere that will produce excellence. You may need psychological help to deal with your anger and your lack of empathy.
This is a boss shortcoming that may not just lead to mediocre profitability; it may endanger your safety. No one likes being humiliated, and bullying is a significant cause of workplace violence. The next person you publicly crush may punch you in the face or pull out a gun. Why might a bullied employee keep coming back for more? Revenge fantasies, perhaps.
- You micromanage your employees.
If you started your business, you literally might have done it all. Your company has grown, and you’ve hired people, but you can’t let go. You need to control hurts morale, increases turnover, and after your reputation spreads, it will be hard to find good job candidates. All the time and energy spent on things that you should delegate isn’t used on the strategic work your company needs.
- You overwork your employees.
Your business may be your life. That doesn’t mean it should be the life of your employees. Most people need a balance between their work and personal lives. They need the income; they want to belong to a team and to contribute. But your business isn’t the center of their lives. You will get far more from a well-balanced, energized, happy, engaged workforce that’s not angry about all the time they put into their jobs than from a group of work zombies.
- You won’t acknowledge employee success.
People need to feel appreciated. They should get heart-felt, positive feedback when it’s deserved. If you want employees who go “above and beyond,” you should reward them when they do so. If someone turned an angry customer to one that’s committed to buying more of your product or service, why not thank them? Employee success means your business will be a success. Be empathetic because most of us don’t leave jobs. We leave bosses.
Take the Next Step. Contact Tony Liu
I’m here to help you and your business succeed. I educate business leaders about the law, give legal counsel, negotiate on their behalf, and protect their legal rights and interests. Some of the issues you may have as a bad boss may get you into legal trouble. If you have trouble managing relationships with employees, you may not manage relationships with others either. You may breach contracts or break laws because you think you can get away with it. Let me help you prevent problems from becoming full-blown business disasters.
Call us now for a Strategy Session. We can talk about how we can help you to run your business without worrying about the underlying legal consequences. We can be reached at (714) 415-2007 or reserve your spot by clicking the link:
https://app.lawmatics.com/appointment-calendar/MTY1MA==|WyIxNzkwIl0=|Inpvb20i
