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.
The Magic Mute Button
Every now and then I go on a rant about something that just drives me crazy. Before I got into management and leadership I used to look up to management like a bunch of people who were really successful because they displayed the qualities of maturity, organization and emotional control. When I actually made it to the executive suite myself I began to realize that a lot of these people were successful DESPITE having none of these qualities.
This fact is on full display in conference calls. It amazes me to this day what people will do during a conference call when everyone can hear them but not see them. All it takes is a quick tap of the mute button and all this background goes away.Instead I hear some of the following insanity. Tell me if any of these sound familiar:
- The classic “peeing” sound while using the bathroom
- Washing dishes while the CEO is trying to hear department status updates
- Chewing and burping while providing your status update
- Background sounds that sounded like pornography playing on the TV
- Loud radios and constant turn signals
- Loud background talking and constant arrival and departure updates from an airport
- Screaming kids or barking dogs
I have personally experienced every item on this list. It is one thing You may not always be able to hit mute before a screaming child or dog bark or a loud background noise, but awareness of your own surroundings should tell you you are bringing a lot of noise into a meeting and the mute button might be a good idea.
This has gotten worse with COVID and people who are not used to having telephone conferences are now in them all the time. Even in video conferences when people should realize they are being watched they are not paying attention to the speaker, spinning in their chairs and doing otherwise distracting things in a professional meeting.
In. my opinion, executives SHOULD demonstrate qualities of maturity , organization and emotional control as true leaders. Every one of your direct hires and coworkers watches you for cues on how to behave. What example are you setting?
What are some of the craziest things you have heard or seen in a conference call? Leave a reply and share.