Rate your boss
OK, this has nothing to do with consumer news or personal finance.
But when this PR pitch came through about how to deal with tough bosses, we had it share it. It got us talking about the bad bosses we had – no names will be mentioned here – as well as the good and what traits made them good.
A Maritz poll identifies four difficult boss personality types. They are:
Win-At-Any-Cost - Tough, controlling and ruthless. Worse yet, they are not seen as honest, ethical or intelligent by their direct reports.
Taskmaster - This boss is tough, controlling and task-driven. This is a ‘Type A’ personality; not cheerful or peaceful, but more focused on achieving goals.
Likeable Loser - Although wholesome and charming, the Likeable Loser is viewed as incompetent, inconsistent and clueless. Employees simply do not respect this supervisor type.
Glad Handler - Despite being friendly and flexible, they are recognized as dishonest, unreliable, clueless and uncaring.
According to sales coach Keith Rosen quoted in the release: “Discovering which one you’re dealing with will help you learn how to work more effectively and enjoyably with your boss.”
Really? You can enjoy working with a win-at-any-cost boss? I’m not so sure about that, Keith.
The Maritz poll also identified two types of good bosses:
Caring Mentors — They genuinely care about their people. They are cheerful, generous, friendly, and flexible. People are their most important priority at the workplace.
Respectable Professional – The most common boss, but not necessarily the most effective. Highly task driven and conducts business operations without a great deal of personal involvement, but employees view them with respect, while identifying attributes such as honesty and reliability.
The Respectful Professional makes up 29 percent of supervisors, according to Maritz, followed by the Caring Mentor at 26 percent. Still the other four add up to a sizable chunk.
Do you agree with these categories? Can you add some of your own?
Maritz Research, which conducted the poll, also raises an interesting question: If you could fire your boss, would you?
Unhappy workers might just prefer to leave. A couple of signs that you need to move on, according to the release: You leave the office three minutes earlier each-day. You look forward to sick days.
A native of Vietnam, 
Comments
At my government agency we see the combination, "likeable glad-hander." Incompetent, clueless, friendly and not to be trusted. Nobody respects them, but they rise up the career ladder because at each level their management is so happy so see them go. (Sigh ....)
Posted by: Nick St.Amant | May 1, 2008 1:14 PM
You're absolutely right. There are some bosses you can't live with happily because they want to be bad and they know how to get away with it. They're incorrigible; you can 't change them and their bosses don't care--that's part of how they get away with it.
You asked for more bad-boss categories, so check out the 13 types at BigBadBoss.com (http://www.bigbadboss.com). Click on the e-chapters button to read a brief description of each.
Posted by: Marilyn Haight | May 1, 2008 4:40 PM
Cross between Likeable Loser and Glad Handler.
Plus he stares at female employees' breasts and talks to us like we're stupid, no matter what degree of professional accomplishment or general intelligence and demonstrated competence.
I have to wear my suit jacket all day even when it's too hot in the office to wear a jacket because I don't want him leering at me. I will never wear a skirt to work because of him.
I'm very well paid and love my job except for his daily presence. Not sure how long I want to endure this even so. Not sure if uber-bosses know he's sexist incompetent boob who stares at everyone's boobs. Not sure they would do anything, except to merely admonish him and thus create a worse situation. To say something or not?
Posted by: Self Medicating | May 1, 2008 8:46 PM