Malcolm O. Munro - The "Career Fitness" Coach

Dealing with a Wimpy Boss

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What do you do with the boss who won't use their authority to actually be the boss?  What if you work with someone who delegates the tough tasks for someone else to do?  How do you handle the boss who refuses to take charge?

I'm going to suggest seizing control if the boss won't choose to exercise it!

Now before I blast this week's bad boss, let me suggest that in some ways, this behavior can be explained.  Many people think the path to organizational success is to work your way to the top.  In fact, being at the top is a sometimes daunting place to be.  Nobody can prepare you for the hassles and stress that await you.  In the face of that stress, the new boss may turn back to old habits, behaviors, and even tasks that they held before the promotion.  And confronting problems?  They either go completely over the top or they shrink away. 

You have no control over how your boss makes this transition.

Here's what you can do:

1. Start asserting yourself!  If you've always wanted to try something new or do something a different way, this is your chance.  Get your act together, build the process, and put it into practice.
2. Take charge of your immediate area.  You don't need positional authority to be a leader.  I know you probably don't agree, but keep in mind leadership doesn't need a title to happen.  Management does.  Start thinking strategically and voice your thoughts.  Demonstrate you know how to add value and get busy doing it.
3. Be a good example.  If your boss demonstrates wimpiness, be the opposite and act decisively.  This is your chance to show the higher-ups you're qualified for bigger things.

There are some people who wait for opportunities to come to them.  If you have this type of wimpy boss, you have an opportunity to really demonstrate your worth.   Get busy this week building your own leadership and management skills! 

AND, if you're this type of boss, you're a complete disappointment to me.  Somebody thought enough of you to hire or promote you to that leadership role.  You better start acting in that role or find another line of work.  Leadership is a privilege.  Treat it as such!

Dealing with an Arrogant Boss

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Imagine if we still had kings like they did in the old days.  They would strut around with their big robes and crowns, compelling us to bow down as they moved through the streets.  At the sign of any criticism, they'd simply single us out for decapitation. 

Some of us unfortunately still live this way.  Arrogant bosses, the "kings" (and "queens") of our days still rule some workplace kingdoms demanding workers pay homage to their greatness.

Arrogant bosses exhibit a sense of entitlement, an incessant string of comments about how great they are, an attitude that demeans others of lower rank or position, and a focus on their needs over the needs of others.  If you're sharing a particular story with someone and they overhear it, they'll chime in with a similar story of their own.  At their least annoying, they'll simply be in your way.  At their worst, they'll inundate your day with deliberate arrogant pain. 

Here are some quick strategies on how to deal with them:

Don’t:

• Openly confront them – they would enjoy beating you down
• Try to one-up them – this is their game and they know how to play it
• Attempt to compete with them – why bother?  It’s a losing game

Do:

• Ignore them – they thrive on an audience and accolades – a silent or non-existent audience completely deflates them!

Of course the best way to deal with tyrants is to just not do it.  In this tough economy that may not be an option, but your sanity may dictate you make the move.  Whatever you do, don't become a clone of your boss.  Without a formal mentor program and development, that is always a scary potential outcome!

Dealing with Bad Bosses: The Screamer

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We're in our second week of figuring out how to deal with bad bosses.  This week's culprit is the screamer.

Screamers fly off the handle at the slightest provocation.  Why?  Their anger is an emotional response to outward stimuli.  It’s a fancy way of saying people get ticked off when actions fail to meet expectations.  According to Daniel Goleman, the “guru” of Emotional Intelligence, our brains are open systems, which, unlike our circulatory system that flows in a continuous loop, take in outside information and process it. 

What does this mean?

If you can’t manage anger, it just grows.  This is why  rage escalates.  Your only hope is to get out of the way until it subsides.  Angry people are irrational. Irrational people can’t be reasoned with. Your rational response will only put fuel on the fire. 

Don’t:

• Attempt to calm them down
• Rationalize with them
• Argue or further provoke them
• Take a swing at them

Do:

• Keep your cool
• Make a conscious effort to control your own response
• Wait for the right moment to revisit the issue when they’ve calmed down

In some ways, this boss is the most dangerous because their anger can provoke ours.  Keep in mind that positionally, they outrank you so your response will probably lead to the demise of your tenure at the company.  If screamer behavior is causing you undue stress that's affecting your personal and physical well-being, it might be time to find a new position.

If there is good news here, I think it's that screamers become caricatures and what they do to motivate simply makes them look foolish.  Still intimidating, but foolish.  They will never be seen as a leader. 

5 Recession-Proof Industries

With health care costs, food prices, and the unemployment rate on the rise, you need to do everything you can to protect yourself - and your career - from the danger of recession.

Take a look at this ARTICLE from MyEduSeek on 5 Recession-Proof Industries that Pay.

Which Jobs are in Danger of Going Away?

As the impact of the economic crisis takes hold, employees from Wall Street to Main Street are feeling nervous about their jobs, and with good reason.  As of September, 760,000 jobs have already been lost this year, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.  And a quarter of U.S. employers expect to make layoffs in the next 12 months, according to a recent report by consulting firm Watson Wyatt.

But which industries will suffer the most? Experts say certain sectors are more vulnerable to layoffs than others.  To read which ones, click HERE to get the full article from CNN.com

Dealing with Bad Bosses: The Unpredictable Time Bomb

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There you are, busy at work when your boss appears.  He begins yelling at you in front of everyone about your missed deadline.  His insults then turn personal.  You feel your blood pressure rising and muscles tightening.  As he moves into your personal space, you smell his bad breath and cheap aftershave.  He then grins and he hurls one last insult.  That’s all it takes – you shove him down and proceed to kick his head in like a watermelon, the cheers of your coworkers rising in the background.

Well that’s what you wanted to do anyway wasn’t it?  Most likely you slinked back to your cube, head down with your tail between your legs. 

This week the mailbag was full of questions on how to deal with bad bosses.  For the next several weeks, I'm going to answer them and give you some suggestions on how to deal with your bad boss.  This week's question comes from Carrie F. from Bowie, MD.

Dear Coach,
My boss is evil.  I never know what he's up to until he blows up at me.  Then he slinks back to his office like nothing's happened.  We can't stand his unpredictability.  None of us knows what he'll do next but we all feel very uncomfortable.

Carrie, I call bosses like yours the Unpredictable Time Bomb.

The scariest thing about these tyrants is their unpredictability. It’s like the sudden air pocket drop you experience on a calm airline flight.  Worse, they can shift mood right before your eyes after drawing you into their comfort zone, dropping the hammer on you when you least expect it.  The Time Bomb also exhibits a talent for hitting your with rage and insults while smiling.  I once worked for a boss who smiled all the time.  The only way you knew he was about to explode was when his face turned red and he began to rapidly grind his front teeth, all while still smiling.  He reminded me a little of the rather disturbing Burger King King. 

To deal with the Time Bomb, you’ll have to carefully study them.

Don’t:

• Turn your back on them – always be wary

• Be taken in by their sometimes charming behavior

Do:

• Respond to everything they say and do to you with caution

• Observe their behavior – watch for things that seem to trigger them

• See if patterns develop – are you doing something unconsciously that sets them off?

Remember, even in tough economic times, it's sometimes better to quit your boss than to put up with unhealthy behavior.  Use your HR Department if need be.  At the end of this series, I'll give you some very clear steps to take when trying to handle ALL bad bosses.

When this recession or whatever it's called is over, people will be leaving their companies in droves.  It's happened after every economic downturn and will happen again.  The bad bosses will get theirs and then some. 

Who is out in the next round of layoffs?

I normally don't paste in a direct article, but this one is kind of important.  Think about where you fall in this pecking order. (from CNNMoney):

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- With jobless claims and unemployment climbing, employees across the country are holding their breath, hoping to hang on to their positions and paychecks.

But widespread layoffs are all too common in an economic downturn. The economy has already lost over 600,000 jobs this year, and experts agree that there will be many more jobs lost in the months ahead.

When credit freezes up, businesses find it tougher to secure financing needed for daily operations, including payroll. That means that more companies will have to take a careful look at business operations in the current climate - and make some tough decisions.

That will likely involve cutting human capital. But which employees will be the first to go?

"From a job standpoint, we're in a recession. When the economy is in recession the chance of being laid off goes up," says John Challenger, chief executive of global outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

Employees with less time at the company are likely to feel more insecure than those who have many years under their belts. But experts say companies are more likely to target layoffs based on things like individual performance and salary.

In the midst of the current financial crisis, here are a few factors that can determine who gets laid off first:

Job performance: Gone are the days of last hired, first fired, Challenger said. Employers now are more focused on building a better and more efficient team.

When a workforce must be cut, "employers need to keep their best talent," Challenger said. "You want to keep the people that you think are your A-players."

Instead of cutting those that have been at the company for the least amount of time, companies now have sophisticated methods for evaluating performance. Management teams can better pinpoint the employees that are the most productive and do the highest quality of work, Challenger said, and retain those that help the business succeed.

And that doesn't just mean showing up on time and completing each task. In order to avoid a pink slip, "everybody who is employed should remind themselves how important it is to make themselves as valuable as possible," cautioned Bob Eubank, executive director of the Northeast Human Resources Association.

Salary: Productivity alone cannot necessarily keep you safe from the next round of layoffs. Employees at every level of an operation usually fall within a defined salary range, and those at the upper end could also be targeted.

"When companies cut back, they certainly look hard at people at the high end of the salary range," Challenger said.

In an effort to cut costs, highly paid individuals are more at risk simply because they are more expensive. "They really have to justify that they are worth that money," Challenger added.

Business need: Employers will also take a hard look at each division or department, to find areas that can be cut without sacrificing successful business operations. "As [companies] look to cut costs, they look to see where the expensive items are," according to John Dooney, manager of employment and HR strategy for The Society for Human Resource Management.

In tough times, it is not unusual to see companies slashing entire departments if they are not cost effective, or dismantling divisions that are costing more money than they're bringing in.

In many of those cases, all or most employees in the department will get pink slips, regardless of their length of service or loyalty, performance or salary. If possible, some companies will try to redeploy some workers to other areas within the company to maintain employee confidence and retain the top performers

How to Have Job Security for Life

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It seems as though each week the economic news gets worse.  The unemployment numbers continue to rise as the news from Wall Street worsens.  More and more of my clients are beginning to question their own job security.  Everyone wants to know if their position is safe.

With that in mind, I thought I'd put together a mini-series on how to have job security for life.

Now I know that sounds a little over-the-top.  Perhaps you'd expect to hear a statement like that from TV pitchman Billy Mays who pitches must-have products like Steam Buddy and the Hercules Hook.  

It's really not though.  Having job security for life means that no matter what the circumstance, you'll either be retained in your current position or be extremely marketable for other positions.  Let me give you an example.

Let's say the New York Yankees ownership made a few too many bad investments on Wall Street and wound up completely bankrupt.  If the team needed to be disbanded, how long before Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, and a host of other superstars from the Yankees found other teams to pick them up?  Not very long.  And here's the reason.  It's not because they played for the storied Yankees, it's because they perform at a superstar level for the Yankees.

You too can be seen in that same category.  The key is to continually add value to your organization.  You do that in 3 ways:

• Solve problems
• Help the organization make money
• Get along well with others

It's simple stuff.  You do that on a continual basis and continue to grow and progress professionally and you'll have job security for life! 

Now the big question is HOW?

Over the next few weeks, I'll give you simple steps to follow that will help you grow your self and your career to superstar status.  All you have to do is implement to process.  Do we have a deal?

Successful Self-Assessments: A Lesson from Sampson, the "World's Largest Horse"

Yesterday we spent the day at the Montgomery County Fair in Gaithersburg, MD.  Now fairs are not my favorite place in the world.  In my opinion they're kind of like a third-rate Disney park, nearly as expensive but ten times dirtier.  My least favorite thing is the midway with all the throw-the-softball-at-the-milk-container games and the carnival callers trying desperately to get you to play.

In spite of it all, I did have a good time and my daughter placed 4th in the art exhibits.  One thing at the fair did intrigue me though.  At the end of the midway was Sampson, the "World's Largest Horse."  Now it cost  a dollar to see Sampson and while I had no intent of going in, the recording that played over and over to draw in the crowd almost got me to commit.  Apparently, "Sampson is larger than a monster truck, eats 125 lbs of food per day and drinks 25 gallons of water.  He is insured by Lloyds of London and is a pure wonder to observe.  He was standing just behind the tent, just a few feet away and it only costed a dollar to see this wonder of the world." 

This played over and over.  My kids begged me to let them go and I did.  According to them (and the camera phone photo they snuck), Sampson was the real deal.  He indeed lived up to the hype.

It made me think about performance management and self-assessment.  All of us know it's better to be confident than arrogant.  I preach this to every one of my workshop attendees.  It doesn't hurt though to know how to talk about our accomplishments in such a way that our boss wants to listen. 

Everything the recording told us about Sampson was real.  It highlighted his features and accomplishments.  There was no exaggeration and no boasting.  It simply laid out the facts, in an enthusiastic way, and we all plunked down a dollar to see him.

Think about that this week as you prepare your NSPS Self-Assessment, your input for your performance review, or just update your accomplishment journal.  Don't be afraid to talk about your accomplishments.  It's not bragging if  you describe facts in a humble but direct fashion.  After all, if we don't at least highlight our accomplishment, nobody will praise us.  And don't forget the most basic issue - are you doing things that make a difference at work that are worth highlighting?

Think about it this way.  If you were standing behind the tent waiting to be seen, would there be enough exciting features about your work performance to make your boss want pay to see you? 

I only hope Sampson gets a cut of the cash he earns!

How do you fit in with the dress code?

Here is a great article from CNN.com on trends at work and how dress codes are evolving.

Click HERE to read!