Archive for the ‘Tame Your Terrible Office Tyrant’ Category
Is It Better to Be Liked or Feared?
16November 2011
If you’ve recently been promoted to a management position or just wavered at times in your career—you may be asking yourself, as a good manager and coach, should I be liked or feared to be effective? In my latest BloombergBusinessWeek article I posted the fact that instead of vacillating between being a feared power player or a well-liked pushover, leaders should try to earn respect.
A recent LinkedIn discussion I led supported my premise that respect is really the goal. Most members of the Human Resource Management group felt that in order to garner respect, being liked is indeed better than being feared—but that at times some fear of authority is necessary to get the job done.
In the business world, the greater good of the company sometimes necessitates unpopular decisions. But managers can’t execute them without a foundation of respect. Please take a look at BloombergBusinessWeek for a perspective on how real power thrives on respect.
TOT-taming for Beleaguered Office Workers
6November 2011
If you’re a senior manager or in Human Resources, you know that Terrible Office Tyrants (TOTs) wreak havoc in your business. You want to mitigate the behavior as much as possible. You also want to ensure that your staff is TOT-free.
TOT-taming is reaching out to more beleaguered office workers this month with articles appearing in Forbes, CBS/MoneyWatch and Media Bistro. Forbes highlighted Seven Ways to Tame an Office Tyrant — don’t let them see you sweat, listen actively, be a role model, be a problem solver, harness strengths and weaknesses, use humor and show empathy. Of course, in my book, there are many more tips. Check them out!
At CBS/MoneyWatch you’ll find suggestions on what to do When Your Boss Acts like a Toddler, which included my favorite acronym: CALM—Communicate, Anticipate, Laugh and Manage. Communicate with your boss openly, honestly and frequently. Anticipate problems before they become larger problems and have solutions ready. Levity helps break tension, diffuses issues and punch through barriers. Managing up doesn’t mean kissing up. It means speaking the truth and setting expectations with your boss.
In Media Bistro’s Dealing with the Terrible Office Tyrant (TOT) I told public relations professionals that the onus was on them to spot a TOT and put some real teeth behind that great PR reputation. With some behind the scenes TOT-taming they can increase those moments of agency euphoria.
Try some TOT-taming techniques in November, as the holidays and a short month create a fertile environment for more stress!
Holiday Season Separation Anxiety
14December 2010
With the holiday season upon us, most folks are planning to take some time off work. But the economy doesn’t take breaks, and many managers may feel reluctant to relinquish control of their team, even when it’s their well-deserved vacation. Fear is a big driver, and when bosses - like kids - don’t have control, such as with matters of a vacation from work, a “terrible office tyrant” or “TOT” can emerge.
A needy boss wants constant assurance that the employees will take care of all needs and deadlines, holiday or not. Some ‘TOTs’ at the helm may be taking shorter vacations themselves, particularly at smaller companies, which can put additional pressure on employees hoping for a peaceful holiday break.
Holidays is the time to relax and recharge, and your employees will be thankful if you let them do it without feeling guilty. Read more on the issue in my recent article for PsychologyToday.com.
Is Your Management Career Poised for 2010 Success?
29December 2009
In Psychology Today.com, I talk about how it’s time to shore up your career and managerial skills for 2010. I’d like to address that here, and wish you much joy in your career and life in the coming year.
Many had to settle for a less-than-agreeable situation at work in 2009. But 2010 is upon us, and here’s a brief metaphor: 2010 is the Chinese Year of the Tiger, and the tiger is known for its strength and strategic skills in getting results. Without being a predator, you can be aggressive about achieving your career goals in the New Year.
First, decide what your heartfelt objectives are, then set your own rules. You do possess needed skills and company know-how. Your leadership skills are hard to replace. So if you like the job you’re currently in, but not the terms, now is the time to fine-tune them and dial up your satisfaction level.
Assess your weaknesses. Clarify what you want more, or less of. How can you better control office challenges by through reading, training and professional development? If fear has held you back, consider if it’s time to move on to the “great unknown.” Design your career objectives based on what would bring you the best long-term happiness. Then, pounce.
Regardless of your choice, the macro environment we’re in dictates a few requirements that will keep you at the top of your game:
• Make human relations skills your priority for 2010. Just because it’s a tech world on steroids doesn’t mean we must lose our humanity. In fact you can counter this trend by increasing yours. Even if those around you regress to virtual toddlers (Terrible Office Tyrants, or TOTs, as I call them) in the pressure cooker recession environment, ratchet up your “interpersonal intelligence” to set you apart from other managers in 2010. You will help “TOT Proof your company” in the process.
• Take the initiative. Like so many aspects of achieving success, maintaining an objective, healthy perspective and being a proactive problem solver can make all the difference. Learn how to role model calm, clear thinking, positive behavior with those around you - this is a transferable skill. The practice will be contagious to top management, too, and benefit those across the organization as well.
• Keep Your Eye on the Prize. Despite the prevalent “sky is falling” mood in corporate America, stay focused and positive on fulfilling your career dreams. When things are in flux, chances for advancement can unfold before you at any time - if you allow them to.
• Reach Out - With Precision. Regardless of whether you’re making job move, networking is essential to career success, and who you know does make a difference. However, choose your venues wisely; time is a non-renewable resource. Master social networking tools, such as LinkedIn groups, blogs and Twitter, as well as targeted trade groups in your area. Reach out to contacts who are helpful, but also be of value to others in return.
• What Are You Saying? With text messaging, e-mails and hurried memos, your writing skills can deteriorate into a terse, nonsensical mess. Recipients may spend needless time trying to decipher what you mean, or worse, take it the wrong way. Take classes in writing and public speaking so that you can better sell your ideas and put your best foot forward in business.
• The 2.0 You. No matter how much experience you have, you can always become more tech savvy. Now is the time to not only upgrade, but to learn skills outside your comfort zone. Jobs are becoming increasingly specialized over time, and so is software that supports those positions. The willingness to learn continually is an invaluable asset.
Make 2010 the year of bold decision-making that you may have been putting off. (Just be careful to sharpen your skills, not your claws, as you set your sights on your goal.
A sunny, helpful, open and positive disposition - combined with a thirst for knowledge - are the real “killer” skills that will last beyond 2010. They will last a lifetime.
Make 2010 Bad Boss-Free in Your Company
14December 2009
If you run a company or department, or are an HR professional, the thought has probably crossed your mind: how can you boost morale in 2010 after a tumultuous year? I can offer at least one solution. TOT proof your company, and make it safe for success.
Yes…aim to tame the Terrible Office Tyrant (TOT) behavior that lurks in your offices, reducing it at times to a corporate playpen, rife with sandbox politics. Toddler behavior in the boardroom (tantrums, demanding, stubborn and self-centered behavior) costs you. These are some of the 20 traits in my book that many business leaders consider required reading for their managers.
I can also address the topic at greater length in a lively speech for companies and organizations. A preview is available at various sites: LT Speaker clip site, Lynn Taylor Consulting and very soon on YouTube with keywords Lynn Taylor, Author, Speaker, TOTs. You can also contact: 1-800-454-0083.
2010 must be the year of “what’s in it for us,” not “what’s in it for me,” if our economy and businesses are to rebound. P.S. a surprising new sector can help you ratchet down tension with their years of wisdom and corporate savvy. See more on “Gen U”as I call them - Generation Unretired (featured in BusinessWeek) - and read why, at the TameYourTOT.com blog and at another website of Lynn Taylor Consulting’s: www.GenerationUworkforce.com.
Finally, let’s hope that these boss antics are not happening under your nose, but for the sake of levity during the holiday and some helpful awareness, here’s what some some employees reported recently in a national survey, not unlike that shown in an existing, similar YouTube clip!
Introducing “Gen U” – Generation Unretired
6November 2009
There’s been a lot of discussion in recent months about the “unretired” – seniors who are returning to the workforce for economic or personal reasons. I call this formidable group, “Gen U™” because they represent an astounding number of workers – a true generation with a different mindset from previous retired generations.
Now people over 65 (and even under, who thought they could retire early) are asking:
“Is this all there is?”
“Is this all I’ve got?”
Driven by a devastating financial crash, housing market or just plain restlessness, Gen U will make up almost all the growth of the U.S. labor market over the next seven years. According to AARP, eight out of 10 of the 80 million Baby Boomers will work part- or full-time rather than retire. Those 64 million unretiring Americans will constitute the biggest demographic shift in the American workforce since Baby Boomers emerged.
KEY FACTS
1) 93% of the growth in the American labor market from now until 2016 will be from workers 55 and older [because] new estimates show the average retired couple may need more than $300,000 in savings to live comfortably and pay off late-life health care costs. [Based on a recent study by the Pew Research Center].
2) Only 20% of retirees now feel very confident they have enough money to live comfortably throughout their retirement, down from 41% in 2007. [Employee Benefit Research Institute research].
3) Eight out of 10 baby boomers say that they plan to work at least part time after they reach official retirement age, according to the AARP, as noted earlier.
4) 36% of those 56 or older are still working – more than ever. That’s more than twice as many as in 1984 [2007 Bureau of Labor Statistics report].
5) 9.5 million Americans are considering at least a partial return to the workforce because of the economic downturn, according to a recent study by Charles Schwab.
OTHER INTERESTING FACTS
• Only about a quarter of employees 55 and older who were laid off during the past year have found jobs versus 71% of those 25 to 34.
• According to the Social Security Administration, if you are of full retirement age, the government will give you your full Social Security benefits no matter how much money you earn. (Note: If you return to work after you’re receiving Social Security benefits, but are not yet of “full retirement age” - usually 66 years of age - the government will deduct one dollar from your Social Security benefits for every two dollars you earn over $14,160 a year.)
• Baby Boomers are earning online degrees in record numbers to train for unretirement [http://www.allonlineschools.com/online-education-resource-center/adults-online-learning]
• Generational demographics: there are:
• 80 million baby boomers
• 46 million Generation Xers
• 78 million millennials (Gen Y)
THE IMPLICATIONS FOR BUSINESS AND GEN U
This presents an enormous opportunity for companies who wish to tap into this rich resource of skill and experience. While unemployment was at a 26-year high at 10.2 percent in October 2009, there are still a plethora of specialized skills available among Gen U. They laid the foundation for the high technology revolution and challenged the status quo of business in the 1960s. Now, interestingly, they are challenging the status quo of retirement.
Gen U’s contributions reside not only in their skills sets garnered over many years, which can be passed onto Gen X, Gen Y, and Baby Boomers. They have also learned a thing or two about people skills – something often lost on today’s frenzied, high-tech workplace.
Today’s need for a humanized workplace can be well served by such timeless, valued traditions as business etiquette and diplomacy – tenets of business practices applied more extensively in the heyday of the Gen Uers. These skills are the antithesis of what I call Terrible Office Tyrant (TOT) behavior. Suffice to say that their interpersonal skills can help, especially once companies are in a hiring mode again. Just be sure that your managers avoid using TOT management styles when tapping into Gen U for optimum results.
For Gen Uers themselves, this presents an opportunity to re-apply their knowledge, pay off expenses, “give back,” and feel a renewed sense of purpose. While a sense of community can be achieved in a yoga class or golf game, for many of the unretired I have counseled - building something directly impacts the livelihoods of others can be quite rewarding.
This is a truly Gen-U-ine shift that is a win-win for companies and the unretired in the coming months and years ahead.
Don’t Do This: TOT Boss Stories Told on YouTube
21October 2009
Many people in L.A. on Boss’s Day couldn’t resist using levity to discuss bad, childish boss stories - once they saw the angry yet fearful, 6.5′ TOT boss with his famed pacifier. I guess humor helps us make a point - or at least deal with annoying, seething (or teething!) people. I often say that humor is the shortest pipeline to the memory banks.
Let’s face it, when managers (or workers) act like toddlers, you sometimes have to laugh to yourself, and then do your best to use your parenting skills. My book, Tame Your Terrible Office Tyrant™ (TOT): How to Manage Childish Boss Behavior and Thrive in Your Job is about the most common, everyday variety of bad episodic behavior that we can all fall into if not careful. (Tyrannical bullies who are lawsuit worthy certainly are not laughable.)
It was nice to hear some positive stories from both workers and enlightened anti-TOT bosses, too. I spoke with many more great people who we couldn’t get on camera due to the short length of these videos. If you’re one of them, thank you for your time and great insight; I wish we could have had it run for a half hour!
When it comes to the office, “the child within” should certainly stay there. Here’s proof: the YouTube video clip on funny, bad/childish boss stories, with the TOT boss looking a bit aloof: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYQSOZEMVCI
We can humanize the workplace - together!
Bad Boss Behavior Is Dragging Your Company Down
9October 2009
Many leading experts are emphasizing the importance of a psychologically healthy workplace for a company’s success. This may be more difficult to achieve now than it used to be.
National surveys commissioned by my company, Lynn Taylor Consulting, and conducted by an independent global research firm show that bad and childish boss behavior rose 50% in the period from 2004 to 2009.
This kind of behavior can increase stress in the workplace and lead to employees’ distraction, decreased motivation and even long-term health problems, the ultimate result being drop in productivity and profits. Readers’ conversation on my BusinessWeek blog shows it to be a matter of great concern among employees.
This study and other extensive research encouraged me to write a book, Tame Your Terrible Office Tyrant™ (TOT); How to Manage Childish Boss Behavior and Thrive in Your Job (John Wiley & Sons, July 2009). The book offers tips on “parenting” unruly managers who resemble tots in their Terrible Twos. Even more importantly, the book advises CEOs on how to “humanize their workplace.” Senior management has the most power to implement change that would establish an employee-friendly corporate culture with management/employee relationship based on trust, understanding, and mutual respect, creating a better workplace climate and improving overall performance.
Rather then managing an assorted collection of people united just by material interest, CEOs could be leading a tight team united by a common purpose where everyone is motivated to contribute their maximum. TOT-proofing a company would be a major step towards achieving that goal.
Restructure Job Descriptions for Growth
22September 2009
In my last blog, I talked about a dreaded corporate disease. Not swine flu, but corporate territorialism. While not as immediately threatening to health, it does affect corporate health. So I’m delving further into it today.
As managers regroup after the tornado of the deepest recession since 1921 and start to focus on reconstruction, they should set time aside to rebuild job descriptions as part of this pursuit of “anti-territorialism,” for better clarification and growth.
Some managers may not be comfortable with the impending changes that will evolve as does the economy, believing their “domain” is threatened. They may avoid any participating in new ways of thinking and/or innovative projects. Clear job descriptions should not equate to hierarchy, as I mention in my column in SmartHRmanager.com. In fact, it can and should mean the opposite. For example: there should be a free flow of information from a customer-facing employee to the top rung of the organization — creating an environment that’s “safe for success” for people at all levels.
Public comments and stories about Terrible Office Tyrants (TOTs) on BusinessWeek and MSNBC attest to the fact that TOTs leave more than proverbial juice stains in corporate America. And territorialism is a big culprit.
Better delineations of responsibilities lets mid- and junior-level managers know where they stand. It helps them feel free to let go of old practices and participate in new ones that fulfill the company’s vision. New ideas and enhanced corporate profits are often linked.
P.S. You can follow me on Twitter.com, too: @workplaceexpert for my thoughts on related HR and leadership matters.
For more details on TOT-proofing your company and creating a humanized workplace that is safe for success – you can order the Tame Your Terrible Office Tyrant™ (TOT): How to Manage Childish Boss Behavior and Thrive in Your Job at your local bookstore or at: Amazon, Barnes & Noble.com or Borders .
When Bad Bosses a.k.a. TOTs, Mark Their Spot
28August 2009
The recession isn’t over yet, but some economic sectors are sprouting again, so some of your managers if left unchecked, a.k.a. TOTs, may be taking this opportunity to act out in some specific ways.
As BusinessWeek and MSNBC point out this week, Terrible Office Tyrants (TOTs)TM are in full season.
In particular, TOTs are now marking their territories like never before. Maybe they’re attempting to amass office space, sales forces, or “marking” sales territories with hoarded executive office pens! They might as well hang a sign on their doors that reads “This is MINE; go get your own stuff!” Territorialism is rampant, as mentioned in detail in my Psychology Today blog and in Forbes.com.
The problem is your staff may have just been assigned a part of your TOT’s old sales territory - and he’s not real happy about it - even though he’s been your employee’s mentor for 11 years and has diligently learned some of his best sales techniques. Now your Terrible Office Tyrant manager is calling on his former clients, telling them that your staff member is a “rookie” and they should contact him because he’s the “real deal.”
What makes your Terrible Office Tyrant (TOT) display these territorial claims in the office?
It stands to reason that the same skills your TOT used to survive childhood and/or a former job would serve him well in the hand-to-hand combat of corporate life, as explained in Psychology Today entitled Why Bosses Act Like Toddlers. His goal is to get stuff - and keep it. Your goal is to have him let go of it and delegate.
To avert conflicts, make sure that your TOT knows how much you value his mentoring of more junior staff. Assure him that you value managers whose staff is strong.
Once your TOT realizes that you’re not a divisive leader, and that a solid staff is an asset that helps the company grow, you’ll mitigate the power grab syndrome. In Tame Your Terrible Office TyrantTM (TOT): How to Manage Childish Boss Behavior and Thrive in Your Job, there are many more suggestions on how to handle difficult managers in your ranks.
Territorialism is just one of 20 Terrible Office Tyrant behaviors outlined in my book, by chapter. I am often asked to describe all of them. See if you can find one, two or more of these bad behaviors in your office in a given day or week:
BRATTY
These are the more aggressive traits that are typically activated when your TOT is operating under stress, has been taught that this behavior will achieve self-serving results, or your boss is fearful of an impending outcome:
1. Bragging
2. Bullying
3. Demanding
4. Ignoring
5. Impulsiveness
6. Lying
7. Self-Centeredness
8. Stubbornness
9. Tantrums
10. Territorialism
LITTLE LOST LAMBS
These traits are often born out of incompetence or general fear of inadequacy. While they seem benign, these boss behaviors can be just as irritating - and equally as unproductive in the workplace.
11. Whining
12. Endless Questioning
13. Fantasy World
14. Fickleness
15. Helplessness
16. Irrational Fears
17. Forgetfulness
18. Mood Swings
19. Neediness
20. Short Attention Spans
For more details on TOT-proofing your company and creating a humanized workplace that is safe for success (meaning decreasing territorialism), you can order the book at Amazon, Barnes&Noble.com or Borders.
