In certain cases, it may be immediately obvious that you are an awful boss. Do your employees avoid being around you? Do conversations stop when you enter the room? Do employees never want to come to company functions? Do you have a high turnover? These can all be signs that there’s something lacking in your managerial abilities.
However, it may not always be obvious that you are an awful boss. You may think that you’re doing a great job, and your employees may not say anything to the contrary. But there might be subtle indications that things are not what they seem. Here are the signs you need to look out for:
Employees Don’t Ask You Questions
Do people hardly ever have any questions when you assign them projects or assignments? You may think that this indicates a high level of competency within your organization, but the truth may be that people are afraid to ask you to clarify what you mean. This may be because you have a habit of snapping at them or ridiculing their questions. It may also be because you’re not very good at explaining what you want.
Keep in mind that if your employees are not asking you any questions, that’s not a good thing. It might make your job easier for the time being, but you’ll see the drawbacks of this in the long run. Things won’t get done exactly the way you meant for them to get done, and your staff members might have to redo things which could have been done correctly the first time around.
So it’s a good idea to encourage employees to ask you questions. Make sure you develop your listening skills so that you really understand what they are asking. And then, make sure you put some effort into answering the questions as well.
Employees Are Not Creative
Do your employees hardly ever come up with ideas of their own? Do they pretty much do what you ask and then go home as soon as they can? Are they not particularly interested in advancing within the organization?
If your employees seem to be at a standstill, that’s not necessarily because they can’t come up with any creative ideas. Anyone can have creative ideas; they just need a safe space in which they can express them. And it’s up to you, as the employer/manager, to create that safe space for those under you.
If you find that your employees never come up with any ideas, it might be because they’re afraid of expressing them to you. And that indicates that you need to change your managerial/supervisory style. You need to be open to new ideas and encourage employees to come up with them.
Employees Keep Picking Up the Slack
Do you find that the people under you often end up doing your work without even telling you about it? This often happens for bosses who are not particularly organized. Maybe you mean well, but you often forget to do certain things, which leaves your employees to pick up the slack.
Maybe there are certain tasks that fall under your purview, but they’re not tasks that you enjoy very much. You might end up leaving them till the very end, and your employees might end up doing them for you!
This indicates that you need to work on your organizational skills. It also indicates that you need to start turning in your work punctually. After all, your employees will probably not be able to get their tasks done before you do your part.
There are many signs that you’re an awful boss. But there are certain signs that are easy to overlook. If you find that your employees never have any questions or creative ideas, that might mean that you’re not creating a safe space for them to work. And if your employees are picking up the slack for you, then you might have to rethink the tasks that you’ve assigned to yourself. These are all signs that some change is needed in your managerial style.