3 Reasons Why The Bad Boss Has No Clue

Most everyone has had the experience of dealing with a bad boss, some more than others and to differing degrees.  Here's a few articles on this topic:  Bad to the Bone, How to Deal: Don't!, Harvard Business Review.  Hopefully, none of you had bosses who made the Really Bad Boss stories (yikes!).  There's no doubt having a bad boss can truly be a helpless feeling at times.  An employee's relationship with his/her manager strongly influences the employee's overall job satisfaction. 

While many employees invoke the Peter Principle ("Employees tend to rise to their level of incompetence") when discussing their manager, there's easily many other reasons why the blockhead boss has no clue.  Here's three main reasons why:

1. Managers try to manage ALL employees the way they prefer to be managed.  Managers fall into this trap all the time.  For many of them, even after this is pointed out, they will continue to manage in this manner.  Guess what genius?  This approach will only work for those who are just like you.  How many of those are out there?  Managers need to get to individually know their employees and understand the different ways to motivate, reward, discipline, and communicate with each of them.
2. Most managers have never been trained or equipped to manage people.  They have shown strong technical skills in their field of expertise and were promoted/elevated into managerial positions purely based on technical talent.  All levels of management need to be able to use management soft skills to be effective.  Unfortunately, many managers simply don't have these skills. 
3. Company culture values the end result only.  The Machiavellian phrase "The ends justifies the means" is absolutely in play here.  I'm not talking about illegal or unethical activities (although these undoubtedly happen too).  I'm talking about company cultures essentially instructing managers to get as much out of their employees as they can RIGHT NOW.  Future consequences are someone else's problem. 

Here's a final asterisk to this list.  Sometimes, employees need to take a look in the mirror to find the real problem.  Maybe it's not the manager's fault at all.  It's very hard for most people to admit when they are at fault.  In a way, many employees act like little children in this regard.  Someone once told me, "I don't ever want to be a manager again because I don't like babysitting adults."