Posted by denised in 
If there’s one thing all my really bad bosses had in common it was their complete ignorance of just how bad they really were. From the expletive screaming tyrant down to the militant little man with the Napoleonic complex, all were blissfully unaware of their epic fails.
There was a particular group of bosses in the middle of my career – all women coincidentally – who although nowhere as certifiable as either the tyrant or Napoleon, were worse for the mere fact that they actually thought they were great. It seemed that for these women, advancing to the ranks of management served as proof of their ability to manage well. In fact, the opposite was true.
In two of the cases the rise to management was simply a result of putting in the requisite number of years. According to established policy, the next level happened to be management. Had the next level been floor mopping, they would have been just as qualified. In both cases the divisions succeeded despite of their management, not as a result of it.
In the third case, this boss’ ascension to management was due to the hiring team’s unfamiliarity with human resources management in the U.S. The office where she eventually ended up working was the U.S. subsidiary of a massive international company. The team that swooped in to do the hiring was ill-equipped and ill-informed, and bought everything this under-qualified, over-inflated individual had to sell. What resulted was the hiring of an unstable, incompetent manager who wreaked havoc on the division until she was finally dismissed.
Few people love their bosses – and even fewer agree with everything a boss does. However, when there’s consensus across the board that a member of the management team is just no good at managing, ignoring the obvious usually leads to disaster. The kicker is, upper management usually asks management to review itself, and if the one in charge is convinced there’s nothing wrong, she’s going to convince management of the same.
