They’re called Sarah, Bill or Mike, and they are your regulars and the biggest consumers of human resources. You know them off by heart and their stories as well. Incompetent candidates, employees with bad attitudes, the younger generations are lazy, baby boomers are beyond it – to hear them say it, without them the department would collapse. Until one day … Bill has a skiing accident which leaves him in bed flat on his back for 8 weeks (this is a true story but any resemblance to people in your organization is purely coincidental and will be denied by the author).
This fine Monday morning, Bill calls in to say that he had a bit of a skiing accident which has got him flat on his back for a few days or a week at most (this is before he spoke to the physiotherapist…). You get a call from human resources and being the good business partner that you are, you contact his boss and decide to go and have a look around the site. His boss tells you that it’s the worst time, projects are late and sales have not taken off and he doesn't know how he’s going to shake up this team of “amateurs”. You don’t raise the “amateurs” but you tell yourself with a smile that at the moment the “amateur” is not the one you might think. In short, you are now heading toward this so-called cursed team.
When you arrive you are welcomed by Bill’s assistant. Asked about it, he seems to have the situation well in hand and although he recognizes that things are stretched, he presents you with the action plan he had submitted to Bill two months ago. Unfortunately, the action plan has not been executed and since the troops’ morale has been rather low, sales have not happened. Let’s say that over the course of two hours you come to understand that the real problem is elsewhere. You will see it even more sharply when in the month and a half to follow (they will later thank the physiotherapist) the project is back on the rails, sales have picked up and the atmosphere is much more relaxed and enjoyable.
Some managers consume candidates and their human resources like others change their shirts. They always have good reasons to justify and excuse their decision to dispose of a member of their staff (incompetence, incompatibility with their colleagues, mediocre performance, etc.) whenever serial resignations and burn outs are not raging. It may take several months or years before the real problem is identified: their management method. Have you noticed how some managers have particularly high turnover rates compared to others and how difficult it is to recruit for them? The market hasn't made a mistake and there’s rarely smoke without fire. It’s very clear that the reputation of a manager can seriously harm the selection process and explode your recruitment costs and group insurance premium…
Interestingly, some organizations tend to implant into their pay structure elements that recognize leadership quality by linking a portion of the bonus to the rate of staff turnover and climate. It is still necessary to define good and bad turnover depending on the nature of the work and the industry. Be careful, one size doesn't fit all in this area!
The Bills, Sarahs and Mikes are what can be called “toxic” managers. How are they to be unmasked and overcome? It must be said this is not easy, because they are generally smart enough not to leave themselves open like novices and, … skiing accidents are not that frequent.
Several factors can nonetheless be taken into consideration and cross-checked by asking a few questions…
- What is the rate of staff turnover? Has it increased since so-and-so arrived? (Make sure to measure the overall and department turnover and note in your graphs major events that might affect staff such as the departure and arrival of a new boss, technical system change, new technology, moving, new strategy to be implemented, etc.)
- What is the work environment and how do you measure it in the different spheres of the organization? The temperature can vary considerably from one business unit to another.
- How should information be circulated? What is the quality of communication? Do front-line managers understand the vision and direction in which they need to go?
- What is the level of employee empowerment? Listen to them in their own words and get the young apprentices to talk… The more widespread expressions are like “they”, “I do what I can”, “another new thing” (IT, process, management method), “it’s not our fault”, the more likely it is that you have a case of a harmful or toxic manager.
- Get hold of those who have resigned and depend on exit interviews. Meet them informally (in a neutral venue or over a coffee) and try to get an understanding beyond what they don’t want to tell you.
- Pay attention to what your external recruiter tells you. They often have the real pulse of the market and know before you do what is said about your company and some of your managers.
So what do we do with the Sarahs, Bills or Mikes? Do we confront them or dismiss them? I am one of those who believes that these harmful bosses are also suffering. In fact, maybe they are the ones who need help? On the other hand, I prefer therapy for them rather than being in the company (you can stop frantically poking needles into a voodoo doll effigy of your boss, hoping to get back at him in his own coin!).
According to Isabelle Nazare-Aga, author of the book “There are Manipulators Among Us”: “If you have the feeling that you are no longer free, if you are constantly talking about someone when they are not there and when they are present you are not at ease, or you behave like a little boy or girl and not like an adult, you are probably dealing with a manipulator. The same goes for these people that take five days to get a simple call from.”
The role of human resources here is key and critical. The more information and material you have the easier it will be to present the context and situation. It’s out of the question to risk staff or subordinates when you are serving them. Explain. Demonstrate. Confront and act. Don’t let the situation escalate. These individuals are often incapable of managing a team. They were promoted because they were the best sellers or because they had mastered a specific process or technology. It’s as if the only option was to progress vertically. Suddenly, they are parachuted in, often without training or real support but with a nice pay increase and a fancy title. It’s at exactly that point that everything goes wrong. Without a role model or mentor, with little or no supervision, a certain tendency for abuse of power and it’s a recipe for disaster.
Toxic bosses don’t all suffer from narcissistic or deviant pathologies – some do but they are actually rare. The others are simply incompetent in their role and it’s your responsibility and that of the organization to remedy it because it’s intolerable to condone any form of abuse of power or intimidation, whether pathological or not. Bob Sutton, author of the book “No Asshole Rules” is even more categorical: “People who continually behave that way need serious reform or should be shown the door.”
Don’t wait for the next skiing accident to act and look after your “Bill” on Monday!