Message To Managers: TOT-Proof Your Company™!

by Lynn Taylor
Founder and CEO, Lynn Taylor Consulting

Is your company filled with bratty bosses or tantrum-throwing toddlers? Do you feel like you are running a day-care center instead of a professional organization? Have you ever dreaded walking into the office, knowing that you are going to have to deal with one of your managers who, on some days, is a helpless child, and, on others, is a tantrum-prone bully?

If so, you may be employing a Terrible Office Tyrant – or TOT – who runs his or her department with all of the subtlety of a toddler. That’s where we can help. Lynn Taylor Consulting, founded by workplace expert and author Lynn Taylor, helps you manage the TOTs in your company.

TOTs can display a wide range of behaviors that are identical to toddlers, and those behaviors can sabotage your company. Employees can be demoralized, demotivated, frustrated, and even driven to quit. When TOTs cross paths with customers, the risks are even higher.

"There are a number of striking parallels between difficult bosses and children and the more I considered the similarities between TOTs and toddlers, I realized that almost all managers can behave this way at some point," Tame Your Terrible Office Tyrant - TOT creator Lynn Taylor explained. "Whether they are demanding, self-centered, distracted, bewildered, needy or prone to micro-managing, mood swings, or tantrums, your supervisors may be acting out similarly to toddlers in their Terrible Twos if not kept in check."

According to Taylor, when dealing with a childish boss, many employees have little choice but to endure the tirades, incessant questions, impulsiveness, and hair-trigger mood swings that get dished out daily. In order to succeed or even survive at work, senior leaders must TOT-proof their office™.

“At other times, bosses and employees as well, can act like little lost lambs – fearful children who are afraid to make mistakes, or afraid of a certain outcome,” said Taylor. She added that the sometimes irrational fear of a competitive threat or impact of an event on a manager’s job can have a ripple effect throughout a department. “Executives should be on alert for the ‘TOT-o-meter’ in them and their managers,” Taylor said.

How can you TOT-proof your company? Lynn Taylor Consulting has developed a variety of solutions to help you identify the little tykes (or "terrors") in your workplace and develop them into more productive, effective and trustworthy managers. They include: setting the stage to humanize your workplace; addressing conflict immediately; not playing favorites; coaching, mentoring and modeling the right behavior; taking the time to hire smart and promote wisely; and investing in your management team. Sometimes … you can't change the person, and you must change the personnel.

Contact us for more information about taming the TOTs in your organization. Visit www.tameyourTOT.com for more information.

Are Terrible Office Tyrants™ (TOTs) ruining your company? You can TOT-proof your company™ before it's too late!