Who Built The Bad Boss?

　　 "Bad boss" symptoms

In fact, "bad boss" and "bad subordinate" tend to be complementary to each other in a vicious circle. In bad interactions with their subordinates, bad bosses become like this. When a number of bosses fail to communicate with their "dissatisfied subordinates", they not only fail to improve the situation, but also make the situation worse. The boss will have problems such as premature conclusion, excessive supervision and cognitive bias. We call this phenomenon "defeat syndrome".

By testing more than 3000 international executives, it was found that despite the company, nationality and qualifications, the boss was right. Low performance employees The descriptions are very consistent. For subordinates with poor performance, bosses will be very concerned about details, tend to supervise their actions and results, and stick to their ideas more when they disagree.

Once recognized as a low performance employee, subordinates are hard to resist. Their opinions are usually expressed by avoiding leadership and avoiding work. Avoiding leadership is a typical reaction. If you feel the boss's supervision and strict control at all times, subordinates may create space for them by hiding information, especially potential problems. When subordinates are tired of being denied, they will evade work. The depressed performance of low efficiency employees strengthened the original practice of the boss. The boss was worried about certain behaviors, so he took measures to stop it. As a result, the behavior of worry was as expected, so he took more efforts to take measures to prevent it. This became a vicious cycle of self satisfaction and self reinforcement of the boss.

Words and deeds mislead the boss's words and deeds to be misunderstood and bring many problems. The new boss's approach to the team, especially to other subordinates, will attract special attention from the subordinates. They will look for signs of the relationship between their subordinates and their bosses. They will observe the boss's contacts with their colleagues, pay attention to who the boss is with, what they say or not. Such alertness is particularly evident at the beginning, making it easy for subordinates to make various judgments, feedback or conclusions. For example, a person who fails to make a contribution to a successful story may make subordinates see it as a hypocritical, arbitrary or unfair person.

The current boss's style may also dissatisfy some subordinates, who think he is too opinionated. For example, tough style is crucial in a company's transition period, but it can be boring when a company is on the right track. Some decisions, actions or evaluations of the boss will become "the last straw" and arouse negative reactions from subordinates.

Pre labeling of new bosses will give subordinates anxiety. They will quickly judge new owners to determine how best they will perform under the leadership of new owners. Once the subordinates conjecture that the boss is a "hard to work boss", they will seek evidence to prove the conjecture, through their behavior (passive, defensive, offensive), and ultimately turn the boss into a difficult boss.

Subordinates observing new bosses will also be influenced by previous boss management. Some subordinates may feel that they have never received the trust they deserve and blame their failure on their former boss. From the beginning of the new employer's first day of office, these subordinates will pay attention to whether they will be as arrogant and harsh as their predecessors. In addition, the former "popular boss" may be too thin skinned and too indulgent in his subordinates, causing his subordinates to be sensitive to negative feedback and feel the new boss is critical.

In frequent changing bosses' businesses, team members have lost confidence in their bosses, and new owners will be labeled as "defeated men" when they are recruited. On the other hand, the new boss may also be promoted by pressure from his predecessor. The situation before the departure of the former is also important. The more abrupt it goes, the stronger the emotional reaction of the subordinates. New bosses have to face the anger, sadness or anxiety of their subordinates. {page_break}

The label will affect the way the subordinates treat the boss, so that the boss can respond. At the very beginning, the boss felt that his incompetent or difficult subordinates rarely asked questions or asked the boss to assist him. Because of lack of communication, the boss will be anxious because he is difficult to understand the situation, and he will also feel frustrated because his subordinates are reluctant to cooperate or not. Therefore, the boss will feel that he must strengthen the supervision of his subordinates and put forward some more acute problems. In turn, subordinates will think that working with the boss is really unpleasant.

　　 The whirlpool of self fulfillment

In reality, Boss And subordinates often fall into the whirlpool of self fulfilment: thinking that the boss's unreasonable subordinates will induce the boss to make some behaviors that can be interpreted as unreasonable or unfair. For example, a subordinate who thinks the boss "never listens" often offers advice when the boss is unable to listen, and proves to himself and others that the boss will not listen.

If the boss starts to feel that he can not handle certain subordinates, he will be prejudiced and deceived himself, which will have a negative impact on his subordinates. They divide their subordinates into core circles and non core circles. Employees from the core circle will gain more support, autonomy and influence. Because the boss has different opinions on his subordinates, the same behavior will cause different attributions. For example, a person who is regarded as "smart" by his boss will be regarded as a contributors for a long period of time. Those who are not valued by their boss will be considered to be incompetent or not quick enough to work for a long time.

When a boss has a negative impression on his subordinates, the common reaction is either to adjust himself, not to get in touch with it again, or to take more forceful coercive measures and become aggressive: "do you not think I am harsh? Let me see what is harsh." at this point, subordinates will respond with "love how" attitude. Whether backward or offensive, the behavior of the boss is consistent with the negative anticipation of subordinates. Neither side can abandon their prejudices and fall into the vortex of self fulfillment.

　 Preconceptions and cognitive errors

Corporate environmental information is jumbled and blurred. To avoid being overwhelmed by information, people will quickly find the most obvious features or appear the most reasonable explanation. Although this saves the time of information processing, it makes cognitive bias popular. It will affect the information processing process of subordinates in the following four aspects.

Observing labels can help people filter out seemingly "irrelevant information". Classical experiments in social psychology and visual cognition show that people's attention is influenced by their expectations. Constantly focusing on something and ignoring unrelated information is more likely to make people feel stressed and tired and to have emotional conflicts with the people they observe. Under these conditions, the boss who thinks the boss is bossy or bossy will find more examples of his boss's rude behavior or outrageous language.

Interpretation of the same behavior will be given different meanings from the perspective of subordinates' view of bosses. Sometimes subordinates will make assumptions on their behavior according to their own assumptions. Once identified as a "bad boss", it is hard to win the favor of subordinates even if they make positive actions.

The "over interpretation" of memory can make subordinates make negative inferences about their behavior. Research on memory shows that these inferences were originally stored as reasons for possibility, but were retrieved as real reasons. In other words, guesswork will gradually become a fact. People will "remember" something that has not happened. These memories will gradually become consistent with their views on things.

discuss subordinate Communication will strengthen the previous cognitive bias. The tension between the boss and a subordinate, or the discontent of the individual subordinates, will quickly spread among the team. When they feel disappointed or not valued by their bosses, the first thing they do is "verify the facts". To get similar feedback, they will first look for those who are least likely to defend their boss, where their views on the boss can be strengthened. {page_break}

Blocking the vicious circle

The boss needs to understand why his subordinates should "harm others" to avoid or stop these undesirable behaviors. Subordinates are not weak victims. In fact, each of them is very sensitive and biased, and will unite to deal with the boss.

Therefore, bosses must understand the company's interpersonal environment before they fall into a vicious circle with their subordinates. They should not only pay attention to their psychological process, but also pay attention to their psychological reactions. Especially at the beginning of the one hundred day, the relationship between the new subordinates and the new subordinates should be maintained so as to avoid the "failure syndrome". Some simple principles may help.

First, it is necessary to establish rules for dealing with subordinates earlier to clarify their expectations and main leadership styles. This discussion is also a good time to establish the initial social networking relationship and to establish mutual respect.

Secondly, bosses must realize that they often classify their subordinates according to their own ideas. This tendency to label people and events is the inevitable trait of human beings. Such reminders can prevent the boss from making an early decision on subordinates' performance and avoiding the intuition bias caused by impression enhancement.

Third, we must force ourselves not to put aside negative thoughts and feelings for too long. The more procrastination, the more problems will be raised with extraordinary strength and anger. The boss must learn to intervene early, change the way of communication, and create opportunities for communication.

Finally, in the process of preventing the "losing syndrome", the boss needs to rely on the participation and help of his subordinates. Bosses can commit themselves to supervision and do their best to develop constructive relationships. Subordinates can help managers discover misconduct by experiencing problems quickly.