September 11, 2008
Most of us have, at sometime in our careers, worked for the boss from hell – or at the very least, we all know someone who has! I’m talking about the boss who is constantly finding fault when things go wrong, while rarely offering praise or encouragement. There are several different kinds of bosses out there - from the bully/autocrat to the bureaucrat and those with more participative styles: The fact is, you could end up with any of these and still find yourself telling your family and friends stories about ‘the boss from hell’. When this happens, it inevitably affects your personal levels of well-being.
But not all bosses who fall into these categories of managerial style are likely to be ‘hellish’ or exhibit bad behaviour, so it’s important to be aware of your boss’ underlying motivations if you are to deal with him/her effectively.
Take ‘the bully’ for example - this is someone who ‘persistently’ demeans, devalues and harasses subordinates in a way that has negative consequences for individuals and the group alike. In a study I carried out with a colleague at Manchester University a number of years ago, with over 5000 employees across about 80 different organisations, people who had been persistently bullied reported significantly poorer mental ill health, lower job satisfaction, more days off due to ill health and told us that they were less productive. So the personal costs are substantial to the employee, but there are also implications for the productivity and morale for the organisation.
There are basically two different types of bullying boss: In the most extreme and rarest form, the bully feels threatened by others and needs to put subordinates down in order to enhance their own self-esteem. It is very difficult to deal with this type of bully, because of the deep-seated drivers of the behaviour - something that cannot be easily resolved or dealt with by employees themselves. This invariably makes it a matter for the bully’s manager and, in reality, leaves employees with two choices – escalate the matter or get out of there and find another job!
For most bullies, however, behaviour is driven by the fact that they, themselves, are so overloaded that they can’t handle their work. This frustrates them and, often lacking the skills to cope, they end up taking it out on their subordinates. There can be several underlying causes of this kind of behaviour: The bullying boss may not be able to handle the pressure inherent in their own job; they may be unable (or unwilling) to delegate to others; or they may habitually blame others when things go wrong, rather than thinking about their own behaviour. Another explanation is that the bully is simply in the wrong job and he/she fundamentally needs to re-evaluate the kind of work that suits him/her best.
However, all is not lost in most cases because, unlike the ‘low self-esteem bully’ the ‘overloaded bully’ can change. It’s perfectly possible for such managers to develop better skills in this area with the right help and support from the organisation and the right motivation to do so. Just as importantly, though, employees can improve the way that they ‘manage upwards’ by being more aware during periods of overload. If employees understand a bit more about the triggers, they can become a source of support rather than contributing further to their boss’ stress and bad behaviour. The fact is that you as an employee can be part of the solution to the problem of the bullying boss!!
No Comments » | 
Leadership, Productivity, Stress, Well-being, pressure | Tagged: Well-being, Stress, Productivity, morale, boss from hell, bully, Manchester University | 
Permalink
Posted by Cary Cooper
September 2, 2008
We are all emotional beings, but workplaces vary enormously in the degree to which emotion is actually shown. Think about the offices you’ve worked in or visited – some may have been fun and full of free expression, some may have been characterised by heated exchanges or management tantrums, while others have probably seemed grey, sterile and almost emotionless.
The extent to which employees express their true emotions in the workplace plays a big role in determining what it feels like to work there – and therefore affects things like morale, resilience, social support, employer of choice status and ultimately results. The emotionality of your workplace depends on various factors - the culture of the organisation, the nature of its business, the way that it is led / managed and the kind of people that it recruits.
But what is the right temperature? Should the workplace be quiet with an air of diligence or should it be all about enthusiasm, whooping and high fives when something is achieved…..or somewhere in between? Well, I guess this really depends on the context because working in a high street bank is very different to working in a sales call centre which, in turn, is very different to working in a squad of police officers. But we are all emotional beings and, as such, we all need the freedom to express our emotions appropriately during the working day if we are to perform to our potential.
Now, of course, this needs to be managed and we can’t have employees openly weeping at their desks or whooping their way through the day on the hospital ward, but there is a serious point here – that feeling like you can express your emotions in a way suited to the context is important for us all.
So do you feel free to express your emotions to the extent that you want to during a typical working day? Or do you have to hold back and be another person for most of the day which can actually be pretty stressful itself? Managers and leaders play a key role here in developing and maintaining an environment that strikes the balance between the needs of the organisation and those of its employees. You have probably experienced managers who create a climate or atmosphere in which no one feels like they can express themselves freely – which leads to tension and ultimately affects results. The best managers know how to give their team members enough space so that their individuality adds value to the end product of their labours, but also know when to remind staff of what the company needs them to focus on. When companies get this right they tap the unique talents of their workforce and invariably see the benefits on the bottom-line.
It is equally important to manage negative emotions like anger – at all levels of the business. Anger is seldom expressed constructively at work so finding the right way to channel this kind of emotion for positive outcomes is particularly important. Line managers, of course, have a critical role to play in role modelling how to do this, but that’s not to say that it’s easy. I’ll leave you with a quote from someone I wouldn’t like to argue with that illustrates the difficulty of the challenge:
“Anyone can become angry – that is easy. But to be angry with the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose, and in the right way – this is not easy” Aristotle, The Nicomachean Ethics
No Comments » | 
Leadership, Management, Motivation, Productivity, Stress, pressure | Tagged: bottom-line, Management, leaders, managers, morale, resilience, stressful, emotional, emotion, emotionless, social support, enthusiasm, talents, workforce, anger, Aristotle | 
Permalink
Posted by Cary Cooper
July 7, 2008
Wow, what a spectacle the men’s single’s tennis final at Wimbledon turned out to be yesterday!! It had everything – Federer, the five times (in a row) Champion reduced to 2-0 down in the first hour; an heroic comeback to draw level at two Sets apiece and then two great players matching each other’s brilliance in the deciding Set before Nadal’s raw strength, talent and determination brought him through as a worthy winner. And the tension was compounded by two rain breaks which gave the both players time to think…..and for the pressure to mount!
Personally, I found the psychology of the final, hailed by the press as the best ever, fascinating. It showed how intense pressure (driven by the desire to win, the fear of losing, the size/prestige of the prize and the crowd) in the contained context of the match took both players, and ultimately the game of tennis, to new levels. And this is what pressure in all forms of work can do - as long as you have the right support around you, it doesn’t last too long and you have the personal resources to cope with it.
We are all like Federer and Nadal to some degree – extreme pressure asks us difficult questions and drives us to find answers we didn’t know we were capable of coming up with. And that means that we find levels of performance we didn’t know we could deliver. You can’t be under pressure 24/7 but, as in tennis, the most spectacular results can emerge from relatively short bursts of intense pressure followed by respite.
I think that Chef, Gordon Ramsay summed up the constructive role that pressure can play in life when he said the following in an interview with Simon Mayo on BBC Radio FiveLive last year – also note the pressure doesn’t have to come from an external source:
“… I put myself under immense pressure - I’m very healthy, but I need that pressure. It only becomes stressful when you can’t handle it…..and boy, do I love handling it!”
No Comments » | 
Stress, Well-being, pressure | Tagged: determination, Federer, Nadal, performance, pressure, psychology, respite, support, Talent | 
Permalink
Posted by Cary Cooper
