How to Work With a Bad Manager
Where they don’t destroy your ambition and journey to success!
Let’s face it, there are bad managers everywhere we go. We almost wonder, how did these people who are so unfit to manage even get these positions? Is the company I work for this far out of touch? These are valid questions, to say the least.
People don’t leave bad companies, they leave bad managers – Marcus Buckingham
The hard truth is if we want to grow our career and feel fulfilled in our work, we have to learn how to work with a bad manager. But before we get into how to work with one, let’s go over how they even got to be a bad manager and what one looks like.
10 Traits Bad Managers Have
- They are always stressed and in a bad mood
- They project their unhappiness on to their team
- They view you as an employee and not a team member
- They LOVE triangular communication
- When times get hard at work they are nowhere to be found
- They blame you for the mistakes of the team
- They never take accountability for their shortcomings
- They are the first to throw you under the bus to the other team members and to clients
- They rarely let anyone give any input on how things should work. ie. my way or the highway
- They cross professional boundaries and raise their voice or they stonewall you
Any of these sound familiar? If you can answer yes to any of these, you are probably working with a bad manager.
How do these people even get the promotions to manager or supervisor? Great question!
In general, they get awarded these positions by their quality of work and maybe work ethic. In the past, a lot of managers got their positions simply due to having a college degree or seniority. Essentially they were in the right place at the right time.
Other reasons managers get these positions is not because they are good at managing people or are team players, but because they know how to work and produce that work to the standard the company is expecting. They knew how to work the system to get recognized. Most managers are good employees in the eyes of the c-suite.
Knowing specifically what it takes to hold a management position in your company is important to your own career growth. It will help you determine if there is a possibility for you to grow your career in your current company, or do you need to make a switch to achieve that career growth.
Respect is how you treat everyone, no just those you want to impress – Richard Branson
“Employees join companies but leave managers. A Gallup poll of more than 1 million employed U.S. workers concluded that the No. 1 reason people quit their jobs is a bad boss or immediate supervisor. 75% of workers who voluntarily left their jobs did so because of their bosses and not the position itself. In spite of how good a job maybe, people will quit if the reporting relationship is not healthy. “People leave managers, not companies…in the end, turnover is mostly a manager issue.” – Brigette Hyacinth
Many times to grow in your career you will be stuck having to work with a bad manager for a period of time. Especially if the only possibility for growth is to work for someone else. For example, a teacher cannot start their own teaching company to avoid working with a bad manager. However, a life coach definitely could!
So how do we stick through it and work with a bad manager without destroying our ambition and career growth? The biggest takeaway from the 10 ways you could handle a bad manager is to remind yourself as much as you need that working with them is never permanent and you are not stuck! You are only going through growing pains in your success journey. This bad manager is teaching you how to be the best manager and an amazing coworker.
10 Ways to Work With a Bad Manager
1. Don’t fight them. It is a waste of your time. Focus your energy on helping others, you will get more out of work by helping others, than fighting a helpless fight.
2. Always do what is expected of you. Go the extra mile if you can & if it fulfills you in your career. Especially if it is an investment into your ultimate career goal. The right people will notice your extra effort eventually. Just don’t expect your bad manager to notice or even thank you for it. If you expect that from them, you are setting yourself up for disappointment. Be your own cheerleader!
3. Learn the tricks of the trade for the management position. For example, what type of experience & education do you need to be considered for the same position or a higher ranking one. This will also help you get noticed by the right people. If you aren’t sure what it takes, go talk to HR or someone other than your bad manager who is in a similar position.
4. Stay hyper-focused on getting the experience and education needed. Don’t waste your time getting worked up about something your manager did that you don’t agree with. Remember, you are working hard to get out of your current situation, so why distract yourself from that goal? It will be tough, but when you feel emotions rising, pause, and refocus on what really matters at work.
5. Build more skills than your manager has. These can be personal skills, communication skills, leadership skills, or technical skills applicable to your industry. Is there a designation or certificate in your industry that holds prestige? If so, go for it! For example, in the insurance industry, there are so many designations it can get overwhelming. Choose the ones that interest you the most and will give you a competitive edge.
6. Don’t give any effort or energy to their emotional outbursts. But be sure you aren’t ignoring them either. Just simply say “I hope your day gets better”, or something simple like that. This will help you stay within your emotional boundaries without being affected by their immature outburst. If you fight back or do something passive-aggressive it just adds more fuel to the burning fire, which is never a good look.
7. Set those good boundaries and make sure to not take anything personally. The bad behaviors of someone else are a reflection of them, not you. You can feel empathy towards them but never take it personally. The book The Four Agreements is an amazing resource to practice these boundaries and to help with not taking anything personally. It is easier said than done! Here is the link to pick up a copy. It’s only $5, a short read, and has 4.8 stars out of 50,000 reviews.
8. Get more involved in your company aside from your direct team or manager. This will get your brand/name out there more and helps you branch out of your comfort zone. You also will learn more about the company on a more macro scale. It might even open your mind to find more opportunities or find a newfound appreciation for what goes into the daily operations. Don’t ever give a bad manager the power of holding you back.
9. Stay authentic to yourself and build up your own skills while still being helpful to your team. The most successful people know exactly who they are and truly believe their life’s work is to help others live a better life. They know what their gift/purpose is and want to share it with the world (in a non-narcissists way). There is a direct correlation between being less selfish and having more long-term success. Remember at the end of the day by working at your company or school, you are part of a big team and there is no I in Team 🙂 If you are unsure what your true purpose is, check out this post How to Find Your Purpose.
10. Whatever you do, do not, and I mean do not, talk badly about your manager to your co-workers. That is what your personal friends are for! The most toxic thing someone can do to the success of a company is putting a wedge between team members. Recruiting people to take your side because you don’t like your manager slows down productivity within the team and affects other departments too. Remember your entire company or school is a team! It’s okay to not like your manager especially when they are downright bad at it, but remember, the less energy you put into how terrible they are, the happier you will be. Why create your own misery??
A bad manager is actually a blessing for you. It is teaching you how not to be when you eventually are a manager. Take notes on things you like about other managers, and what you don’t like about others. This will give you a head start for when you are a manager.
You are never permanently stuck with a bad manager. It might feel that way now, but make yourself a game plan using the tips above so that you can positively transition sooner than later out of your current situation if there isn’t any way to work it out with a bad manager. Sometimes it is a lost cause to work it out with them. Transitioning to another department, team, or even another company might be the only option, and that is okay, if it is going to help you.
The majority of team members that leave their jobs did so because of their bosses, not the position itself.
The key thing bad managers forget is they are a mentor and supporter of the teams’ success, not just their own. They could be crumbling from the pressure and responsibility of an entire team which just highlights they might have bitten off more than they can chew. That is something they need to work out. In the meantime, focus on building your brand, skills, education, and success journey; everything else is just noise. And remember…
This too shall pass – Proverb
If you are one day wanting to be a manager, start early by reading books about leadership.
Here are some of my favorites. All are linked to Amazon 🙂
Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action
Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t
Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts.
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team
Crucial Conversations Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High
Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives Our Success
All in all my best advice here is to stay focused on building yourself. Nothing that you are experiencing today is permanent unless you give it the power to be. Be strong, be kind, be helpful, and never stop working on improving yourself. Good things are coming.
Until Next Time,
