Is Your Boss Someone You Can Work With?

In a recent posting to the blog Boss and Workplace Issues titled "When a Bad Boss Won't Let You Do Your Job -- Run!," the author comments on an article on the Harvard Working Knowledge web site titled "Undertand What Motivates Your Boss." She takes issue (justifiably in my opinion) with a number of the propositions in the article. To her objections, which you can read about by clicking through to her Blog, I add the following comments:

Having been exposed to my share of organizations with varying levels of toxicity, I am a big advocate of taking a healthy look at what does and doesn't constitute a healthy work environment when considering employment or managing an organization. In my experience, all bosses (and human beings in general) are motivated by a variety of needs, which ideally include doing what is best for the organzation, as well as affiliation, power, control, personal advancement, influence, sense of accomplishment, challenge, etc.

Things become dysfunctional when the boss' needs come into direct conflict with the interests of the organization and its stakeholders, including both shareholders, customers, suppliers, partners, and/or employees.

In my experience, the key from the employee perspective is threefold:

• to seek out organizations or departments within organizations where there is a balance between managers' individual needs, the best interests of the company, and the needs of employees both as contributors and individuals.

• to look for bosses whose style best complements their own. If you are somebody who absolutely needs a measure of autonomy, don't go to work for a micromanager!

• Assuming that the first two items are in place, find a balance between adding value to the company, dealing effecively and constructively with one's boss on his/her playing field, and looking out for one's own personal interests, be they in the domain of professional development, project or job opportunities, compensation, benefits, work-life balance, etc.

A boss who is motivated by "power," for example, may not necessarily be a "bad boss." The question is whether that motivation supports or impedes his/her ability to add value to the organization while treating others with the dignity and respect they deserve and fulfilling management responsibilities. These include communicating a clear sense of mission and concrete goals, removing obstacles that prevent subordinates from succeeding, working constructively across the organization, providing resources and encouragement for employee development, and advocating for his/her employees in the organization.

Good organizations reward managers who meet these conditions and weed out the ones who repeatedly and/or egregiously fail to do so. Lousy ones do the opposite. When job hunting, I advocate taking a close look at any potential employer to see where along the spectrum that employer falls. And I recommend that people in a "lousy" organization (or department) that shows no signs of improving devise an exit strategy asap.

Another key to the puzzle is to understand the boss' decision-making style (data-driven, consensus-driven, influence-driven, etc.) and to adapt the structure of one's arguments to fit that style. But that is a whole other discussion for another time.