A large part of my career and life coaching practice focuses on my clients’ relationships with their bosses. It is no surprise that a large percentage of the bosses are either incompetent, non-caring, or know how to “succeed” only by managing upwards well! It is also well known that nearly 80% of the managers (or bosses) belong to this class. Of course, not all 80% of them are uniformly incompetent, but there is that normal distribution of such bosses, with some extreme cases that can ruin a person’s career!
So, typically, this time of the year many of my clients set up meetings with me to deal with their Annual Review, which begins with their own assessment of their performance. In many cases they take the blame for their poor performance on themselves without bringing their boss into consideration, and how the boss’ leadership has affected their welfare and performance during the period in question. This blog is about your taking a stand in those cases where your boss’ incompetence and lack of care have (and are) affecting your career. Here is my guidance to those caught in this unfortunate situation:
- If you have suffered the wrath of your boss’ incompetence during the immediate review period then you must take action as soon as you know what is going on. Do not wait until the review cycle begins to make your boss aware of how your performance has suffered because of the lack of leadership from up above.
- When you start seeing a pattern of your boss’s leadership style that is affecting your performance you must first have a meeting with your boss and apprise them of how you are unable to deliver because of lack of clarity and directive leadership. In the case of one client his previous boss rated him at the top of his performance scale, but when the new boss took charge there was nothing for him to do, despite his numerous pleas to his new boss. At the review time the boss told him that he had failed in his role and that he would not be getting a good review. My client is now wondering how to repair this before the review became formal.
- Once you see the pattern of your boss’ feckless leadership you need to escalate your concern by going from discussions to written emails about how you are unable to perform effectively in your role. If this continues and you start losing interest in your job you must bring to your boss’ attention and tell them that you plan to get HR involved in your concerns about your ongoing predicament.
- Most insecure (and incompetent) bosses do not like to get HR involved in their affairs. So, they may come around and start treating you differently. But if the bad treatment continues you must start writing-up your boss, just as they would if you were not performing, and use these emails as a prelude to your HR escalation.
- At the review time if you assess that your performance is going to be severely downgraded from your previous record, you must write up about your boss’ role in your performance during this period with specifics of how you were unable to perform because of lack of leadership. The higher-ups and HR typically see such write-ups.
Most bosses get away with their bad leadership because they are the boss. If you have the track record of great performance and a good reputation, do not take your boss’ lack of leadership lying down. Raise your concerns early and escalate them appropriately. Of course, there is that possibility of retribution from your boss, but if you handle this appropriately my experience is that you are able to seek the change you are looking for, including a transfer, or better yet, a new and better boss!
Good luck!