What sort of manager/leader do you want to be?
Most people will answer, “a good one.” And that makes sense; it’s hard to believe that anyone would deliberately want to be a bad boss.
I started managing people at work when I was 25 years’ old. Having only quit full-time management last year (to now focus on helping other people manage & lead better) that means I was lucky enough to be a manager for over 30 years. Throw in an extra 10 years of work when I wasn’t managing teams and it means I’ve also had to report to someone else for over 40 years.
As you might expect, I had a bunch of different bosses throughout that time. Just like you have, perhaps? Some good, most average / half-decent … and a fair few bad ones. It took me a long time to realise that having a Bad Boss was actually a reverse Trojan Horse; a gift … hidden within a daily nightmare.
You see, we can learn a lot from a bad manager or leader. One of the best bosses I ever had (many moons ago) was ironically awful … a true micro-manager, painful and exhausting. But in the end I realised that every time they* did something that constituted bad management, it was actually a nugget of gold. Why?
Because I then committed to doing the EXACT OPPOSITE with my own team.
* I’m using ‘they’ to respectfully protect the guilty, here. I should note that I also had periods during my own career when I, too, was a bad boss. None of us are perfect. It helps to critique ourselves honestly (and brutally), especially if being critical of others.
So if you currently have a bad manager (or have had one in the past) try to use your experiences with them in a positive way. Learn from their mistakes. Look at them through different eyes. Make a promise to yourself: to embrace the exact opposite of their behaviour and actions whenever you are managing people at work. Not only will your team thank you for it, you’ll potentially end up being something that every single worker on this planet would love to have: a good manager.
Perhaps, even, a great one.
