Dealing with Incompetent Leaders

Written by Carole Nicolaides


As a mid-level employee, you’ve been working forrepparttar ACME Company, a manufacturing firm, forrepparttar 105453 past two years. Your job performance has been solid, and on occasion, even praiseworthy. However due torepparttar 105454 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 arerepparttar 105455 norms. Congratulations – you are now underrepparttar 105456 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 thinkrepparttar 105457 term “incompetent” leaders should only be reserved for those inrepparttar 105458 company’s upper echelon such asrepparttar 105459 Chief Executive Officer of Chief Financial Offer.

After all, aren’t theyrepparttar 105460 ones entrusted with settingrepparttar 105461 direction forrepparttar 105462 entire organization? While this may be true to a certain extent – CEOs do serve asrepparttar 105463 “compass” forrepparttar 105464 company, but many CEOs are not directly involved inrepparttar 105465 daily operations of their organizations. Those responsibilities fall onrepparttar 105466 shoulders of senior and middle managers. And, it isrepparttar 105467 “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 lacksrepparttar 105468 competency to manage his or her team, then team morale diminishes, productivity and performance drops, and companies ultimately fail. What’s worst isrepparttar 105469 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. Inrepparttar 105470 quest to attain “better and cheaper staff,” one would think that organizations had allrepparttar 105471 advantages needed to rid their companies of every single under-performing employee – managers included. However, nothing could be farthest fromrepparttar 105472 truth. Unfortunately in many cases, it isrepparttar 105473 good, high-performing, mid-level employees who first are shownrepparttar 105474 door, while ineffective managers –repparttar 105475 ones who really need to take a hike – remain.

For whatever reason these foul apples may have been left behind;repparttar 105476 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 despiterepparttar 105477 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 aboutrepparttar 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 atrepparttar 105451 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 ofrepparttar 105452 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 ofrepparttar 105453 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 withrepparttar 105454 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 downrepparttar 105455 business. A couple of years later I started another business where I wasrepparttar 105456 assistant to businesses, but worked from my home. I got to do allrepparttar 105457 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 overrepparttar 105458 last couple of days. Then make a list ofrepparttar 105459 things you enjoyed doing. Think about when you wererepparttar 105460 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 dorepparttar 105461 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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