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Like most people I have worked for some incredible managers — and some incredibly bad ones.
I’ve worked for people that taught me powerful lessons about business and life.
I’ve worked for people who made my life miserable, too.
Here are ten life lessons I learned from my worst bosses. Everybody we encounter has something to teach us!
1. Working for awful bosses taught me that it’s worth it sometimes to persevere through a tough situation to reach your goals.
2. Working for incompetent and unethical people taught me that I get to (and have to) make my own ethical decisions every day. Just because somebody says “You have to do what I tell you!” doesn’t mean you really do.
3. Working for miserable bosses taught me that just because someone has a lofty job title, degrees from fancy universities and other trophies doesn’t make them a good person — or a smart person.
4. Working for lousy bosses taught me dozens of things never, ever to do or say when I became a manager myself. It made me sensitive to the pressure employees feel, and the powerlessness they feel when someone is bashing them but doesn’t want to hear their opinion.
5. Working for sub-standard managers taught me to find my voice, and speak up when I needed to. Because my lousy bosses were not good listeners and didn’t want my opinion anyway, working for them also taught me how to frame an argument so that my boss would think it was their idea.
6. Working for difficult people let me see close-up how fear hurts our judgment and decision-making. My lousy bosses were not evil people — they were just afraid. They were afraid of failing in their job. They were afraid of anything that looked like a threat to their authority. Sometimes even a very young person can scare a fearful manager — perhaps it has happened to you!
7. Working for awful managers taught me that every life experience is valuable, both the pleasant and the unpleasant ones.
8. Working for bad leaders taught me that human relationships are a million times more significant than business relationships, which are based on power. If I worked for a tyrannical boss and the entire department felt the same way about the boss that I did — that is, no one respected him or cared what he thought about us — then the tyrannical boss was bound to fail. They always did. In the end, the power of the team is stronger than the petty bureaucratic power of the manager’s authority — as long as the teammates trust one another.
9. Working for bad bosses taught me that I am stronger than I thought I was.
10. Finally, working for fearful managers taught me the signs of fear in the workplace — and they are everywhere. When someone is jumpy, afraid to ask for help, autocratic or erratic in their decision-making, they are in fear.
Fear is a physical thing. It takes away our good judgment, good humor and ability to have healthy relationships. It’s too bad that so many managers walk around in a state of fear.
You may run into one or more of them at some point. Don’t let their anger translate into a lack of self-esteem on your part. You are fine — you’re just getting some new life lessons from an unlikely source.
You’re learning life lessons that will serve you forever — not from a wise mentor but from a horrible boss!
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