The tail wags the dog!

Leader (n) : The word leader is derived from the word "lead", as in the material that bullets are made out of. Leader is the person whose head everyone wants to fill with lead.

I have read numerous articles claiming how important it is to have a good boss. Well, I am blessed to have had worked with both good and bad bosses and hence I feel I can appoint myself as an author to one more Good boss, bad boss article.

Now, before moving further lets attach a disclaimer to the article.

Disclaimer: The author is not yet self employed, and hence still works with boss(es). The readers are advised to verify that they are neither holding nor held any position which required them to work as a boss to the author. Author is not responsible for any degradation in the self esteem and ego of the reader.

I don't intend to come up with a serious article, suggesting how a bad boss can lead to work related stress and other mental problems or that people leave bosses not organizations or bad boss means bad business. I am a huge follower of Scott Adams and would keep it as Dilbert as I can.

The problem with a bad boss is, he is bad, and worse, he doesn't know about it. My boss, he is as clueless about the plan for next 6 months for our department as the guy who keeps the pantry clean. But this doesn't deter him from his day to day planning for months ahead. Here is an example:

" We have a web based system where bugs in the software are posted and a ticket is generated for the tracking of the issue. The system contains elaborate details such as when was the issue reported, who reported it, who is currently handling it, expected closure date, state (e.g. open. fixed, analyzed etc) exchanges between the testers and the developers etc. Now, for better tracking of issues my manager has come up with a brilliant idea of maintaining an excel file containing the list of issues handled by his team members along with details such as who is currently handling it, expected closure date, state etc.". Brilliant, isn't he? I call this method he has devised "replicating the data".

The good thing about my boss is he often conducts feedback sessions about himself. During one such feedback session I suggested that he sometimes, in an effort to keep things rolling, gets over aggressive and breaks all the hierarchies and starts seeking reports from the grass root level. This gives a feeling to the TeamLeads that they are probably not performing their duties well.
Result: He stopped visiting the team.

Months passed and then came time for another feedback session, I suggested he should spend more time with the team. His reaction, "But earlier I got a feedback that I interfere too much". After few more minutes of talking he understood what I meant.

Result No. 1: The very next day he announced he would be having lunch with each of the three groups he heads, on three different days of the week.

Result No. 2: I understood the meaning of the phrase, "The tail wags the dog!".

As the wise men say, "there is always an opportunity, you just need to learn how to spot one", I have spotted a couple of opportunities arising from the behavior of my manager:

1. An opportunity to write this blog.
2. An opportunity to populate a "Don't do list for Managers"- a subject for a later blog.

To wrap up, a word of advise for all the readers (if I manage to find some), working with a bad boss is after all, not all that bad, Scott Adams made his career out of that :)