You love your job, you have been successfully making your way up the career ladder and then life plays a cruel trick. Your boss changes. You are not able to tune yourself to his leadership style, so you decide to call it a day. End of story. What is it about toxic bosses that compel their employees, quite often the best performers, to leave? Let’s try and understand what makes bad bosses force good employees to quit their jobs even when they like the company.

Bad Bosses Defined

Bad bosses excessively create conflict, take credit for success and blame others for mistakes. They lack cultural competence, they fail to provide promotional opportunities, they demote or promote staff based on subjective merits, and they create toxic and hostile environments. Delving a little deeper we find that bad bosses have certain common characteristics:-

• Control and Micromanagement

When bosses try to micromanage employees, they undermine employee talent and diminish employee performance. Excessive control kills creativity and skills. Roles of people with experience tend to shrink when their bosses micromanage them.

• Non-solicitation of Staff Input

When bosses neglect to solicit staff input, it results in disengagement of the employee. When employees feel that their opinions have no value, they stop making an effort to do their best for the company. Bad bosses create an environment where the staff ceases to invest in outcomes and engage in processes. They do not feel appreciated and valued at work.

• Discourage Dissent

Bad bosses reward perpetual agreement with their decisions and ideas. They like “yes men.” They have a tendency to surround themselves with people who feed their egos even when it goes against organizational success. Good employees face internal struggles when they deal with bad bosses. They earnestly desire to support their superiors but they also need the freedom to share divergent ideas.

• Low On Integrity and High on Unethical Behaviour

Their own needs and interests are often the most important to bad bosses. They work on the assumption that what works for them works for everyone. They challenge good employees to compromise their integrity and ethics in order to remain in good graces.

What To Do About It?

So what do you do given the above scenario? If you have organizational authority start hiring better bosses. If you don’t have the organizational authority your responsibility is to advocate for yourself. Use your conflict resolution skills and speak up. It is your right to stand up for achieving organizational goals. Or better still enrol for a transformational leadership online certification.

Transformational Leadership Course

A transformational leadership course or a transformational leadership certification would be an ideal way to understand how to handle bad bosses in your work environment. Quitting is not the answer. It is important to stand up for values and continue contributing to the future goals of the company. A good option would be the Executive Development Program on Transformational Leadership offered by XLRI Jamshedpur. This eight-month course is offered on the Talentedge platform with live and interactive classes. A transformational leadership course would go a long way in clarifying leadership concepts.