Being Your Boss’s Bulldog
Trying to climb that proverbial corporate ladder can sometimes be tricky and full of unexpected surprises. One of the main allies you have in that journey can be your current boss. But what if your boss is a bully?
A coaching client was on the fast track to success and reached the position directly beneath the CEO and was even poised to step into that coveted CEO slot someday. But his boss the CEO was a bully and a tyrant. So now what?
In order to gain favor and avoid the wrath himself, he took to being his boss’s bulldog—in other words, he now became the bully and tyrant for his CEO. This worked beautifully for him for a while, until it all fell apart.
He was finally promoted to the CEO position after several years of being the bulldog and now he was absolutely hated. Even though he changed his attitude and dropped the bulldog mentality the damage had already been done. No one trusted him and his entire executive team had adopted the same kind of aggressive tendencies to their direct reports. In an effort to get to the top he had almost single-handedly destroyed the company.
I wanted to share two points regarding this client’s story. First, He was not inherently a bully but thought that would support his boss and therefore support his bid for the CEO chair—and it did. However, in the process he lost the support of everyone he would have needed in order to be successful in his new role.
Second, it takes a long time to repair the type of damage that was done in the company based on his attitude and behaviors. Even after a concerted outreach attempt to make nice with the other executives he was still not trusted and not much changed. It took him becoming vulnerable about his behavior and attitude and really opening up to some hard criticism and months of keeping ALL of his promises no matter how hard in order for his team to begin trusting him again.
Have you had a boss like this, or even been a boss like this? Share in the comments.
Jason Kistler