Dealing with Incompetent LeadersWritten by Carole Nicolaides
As a mid-level employee, you’ve been working for ACME Company, a manufacturing firm, for past two years. Your job performance has been solid, and on occasion, even praiseworthy. However due to current economic conditions – poor profit earnings, massive layoffs and company restructuring, you now find yourself working for a new boss. Ordinarily reporting to a new leader would not pose a real problem but this time it feels different -- management practices have changed. The team environment has been transformed from one of true collaboration, honest dialogue and a commitment to problem solving to one where backstabbing, finger pointing and plain fear are norms. Congratulations – you are now under control of an “incompetent” leader!An “incompetent” leader by definition is someone whose action destroys camaraderie, instill gossip, encourage dishonesty, and prevent people from speaking freely. “Incompetent” leaders tend to use their own weapons to get noticed and promoted. They usually lack vision, interpersonal communication skills and confidence to resolve conflict. You might think term “incompetent” leaders should only be reserved for those in company’s upper echelon such as Chief Executive Officer of Chief Financial Offer. After all, aren’t they ones entrusted with setting direction for entire organization? While this may be true to a certain extent – CEOs do serve as “compass” for company, but many CEOs are not directly involved in daily operations of their organizations. Those responsibilities fall on shoulders of senior and middle managers. And, it is “collective leadership” of those managers -- their style of execution, their effective ability to communicate, manage and motivate their teams that keep companies on course. If a leader lacks competency to manage his or her team, then team morale diminishes, productivity and performance drops, and companies ultimately fail. What’s worst is fact that today we live in a heavy Information Economy where bad news about a company spreads instantly thereby allowing competitors to profit from your company’s incompetent leadership. In quest to attain “better and cheaper staff,” one would think that organizations had all advantages needed to rid their companies of every single under-performing employee – managers included. However, nothing could be farthest from truth. Unfortunately in many cases, it is good, high-performing, mid-level employees who first are shown door, while ineffective managers – ones who really need to take a hike – remain. For whatever reason these foul apples may have been left behind; fact that they are present causes a lot of problems either through their actions or sometimes through their inactions. The truth is that “incompetent leaders” have always existed and will continue to exist despite best efforts from HR and other performance improvement initiatives to detect and remove them before bringing irreparable harm to an organization. So what can you do to protect yourself and survive working for an “incompetent” leader? Here are some quick tips: 1. Do not make it a personal matter. This is a hard one, simply because working for an incompetent boss is such a personal matter. Remember, that most of these leaders do not have a problem directly with you, but they too are frustrated and are shouting loud their own insecurities -- most likely mirroring to you things that they should be doing.
| | Plan Your Success In Seven Ways Written by Sue and Chuck DeFiore
Many businesses lose money yearly because they don’t think creatively about future. They run their businesses doing what they think they should: dealing with customers, dealing with problems, ordering for their business, and paying their expenses. They act like their business is a job. They are surviving and that’s it. They are not looking at big picture. They need to use their business as a stepping stone to success. Picturing themselves as a successful business person, and setting up a plan to succeed. Many of businesses today are started by people who have been downsized or laid off. They are used to showing up for a job and getting paid, and this is how they are operating their business. The first thing you must do is to find out what you are really good at. Many people want to know, “How can I make more money?” Unfortunately too many business people never ask themselves, “What am I good at?” They need to do so, and then ask it again every time they want to do something new. This is one of biggest reasons businesses fail. The owners did not focus on what they were good at and did best. This does not mean you can’t try something different. What it does mean that it is best to go with skills and experience you already have. The second thing you need to do is take an objective look at yourself. Take a piece of paper and write down what you can and can’t do. Picture yourself hiring you. Would you hire yourself? Would you be impressed? What do you know best? What are your hobbies? Can you turn that hobby into a business? Remember you work best at something you enjoy. I was an exceptional secretary, so I started a word processing business. I loved typing and taking dictation by telephone, writing up letters, proposals and setting up identity packages. However, I hated having to drive around town to pick up and deliver projects, and cold calling for business. So after losing money, I shut down business. A couple of years later I started another business where I was assistant to businesses, but worked from my home. I got to do all secretarial aspects, but out of a home office. All I had to do was send flyers and mailers to independent contractors. I also worked with answering services for referrals and gave them business, plus a cut of my fee. What this means is you need to discover what your likes and dislikes are. People like to work at things they do well. They enjoy themselves more. A test for you is to think back over last couple of days. Then make a list of things you enjoyed doing. Think about when you were happiest and what you were doing. The third thing you need to think about and be able to recognize is: What your competitive edge is. After you do above test and find out what your strengths are, you will find that some of these strengths give you an advantage over your competition. Do your particular strengths and abilities help you provide exceptional customer service? Can you do something or produce something that others can’t?
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