We spend an awful lot of time in the workplace. And when it’s not a happy work environment, it takes its toll. Working with a good boss or a bad boss makes a huge difference to your day to day life. That’s why it’s often said that great employees leave bad managers, not bad companies.
Sadly, bad management happens all too frequently. A shocking 71% of employees have encountered bad, or even, toxic management styles, according to 2023 research.
Bad managers can have a major impact on their employees. Here, I’ll help you to spot the warning signs of bad management. And if you’re a manager yourself, it could be time to look in the mirror.
How Bad Management Can Affect You
A bad manager can have a negative impact on their entire team. When you’re unhappy with your work situation, it lowers motivation and productivity. Employee morale drops and that makes the daily grind feel just that – a grind. Ultimately, team members look elsewhere for work and you see a high turnover of unhappy staff.
At an individual level, bad management can negatively affect your work and personal life. You may find it impacts your mental health and wellbeing. That can present itself as anxiety, low morale or even total burnout.
What are the Signs of a Bad Manager?
1. Micromanagement
One of the most common traits of a bad manager is micromanagement. They won’t give employees the autonomy to work independently. They can’t help but control the process, butting in with their thoughts on how it should be done.
If you’re a small business owner, you may well be used to controlling every aspect. But you have to trust the team that you’ve employed to do the work they’ve been employed to do. That includes allowing them to take risks and make mistakes. It’s a really important part of the process. A manager who lacks trust in their employees will never be a good leader.
2. Lack of Support
On the flip side, some managers leave employees to their own devices. I know, I’ve been guilty of doing this in the past! It’s easy to think that people know what they’re doing and can crack on with it.
It’s great that you trust them to work autonomously, but employees can feel neglected. They can feel that you don’t care enough to invest time in them. And that’s not a good management trait. Make sure they know that you’ve got their back and they don’t have to fend for themselves the whole time. Provide clear expectations and check in on their progress.
3. Poor Communication
Strong communication skills are one of the most important traits of an effective leader and manager. Good managers keep in touch and provide regular updates to their team members. Bad managers keep the news to themselves. When people don’t know what’s going on, their minds can go into overdrive and make assumptions. This is particularly true at volatile or changing times at work. The gossip grapevine goes wild with people trading on speculation rather than fact.
If you schedule time for regular check ins and keep your employees in the loop, you make for a much happier and settled work environment. Oh, and don’t just fire off a blanket email update. Make sure there’s scope for a two-way conversation with your staff.
4. Conflict Avoidance
Having difficult conversations is part of being a manager. Generally, it’s not something you look forward to. But avoiding those conversations so that you don’t encounter conflict is cowardly and unfair to your employee.
People need to discuss their career development ambitions and options. Maybe they want to talk salaries. That’s a key part of working life. Schedule regular check-ins that are dedicated to discussing their career development and goals.
And if you do need to provide feedback on their work, don’t save it all up for the annual performance review. By making constructive feedback part of your 1:1 meetings, it’s less likely to blow up into a conflict situation.
5. Playing Favourites
I’m afraid to say that I’ve done this too. It’s unfair when you don’t give all of your direct reports the same amount of time and attention. In my old business, I was guilty of spending all my time with the sales people to help them perform better. But I wasn’t giving enough time to people on the operational side, so they felt a bit left out. And rightly so.
Showing favouritism and giving a person or team preferential treatment is demoralising for other employees. Why should they strive to work harder and do better if their manager’s attention and rewards always go elsewhere? Be mindful of giving someone special treatment. Again, book in catch ups with each direct report on a regular basis to ensure you allocate time to them individually.
6. Exclusion from Decision-Making
Not involving people in decision-making indicates a lack of trust. Managers need to remember that they’re leading a team, rather than running an autocracy. Encouraging teamwork and listening to diverse opinions and ideas can result in more innovative solutions.
Some people have a management style that doesn’t gather ideas from their team members. That can be hugely deflating for people who are enthusiastic about ideas, creative concepts or suggestions for business initiatives. Excluding them is a surefire way to make that employee feel undervalued.
7. Lacking in Empathy
A lack of empathy is a terrible trait for a manager or leader. Treating your team members as individuals, as humans, is absolutely vital. They’re not just cogs in your machine. They’re people with their own minds, needs, passions and personalities. Forgetting that can be disastrous and you could end up with a toxic workplace.
Take time to get to know your employees. Understand their motivations and what makes them tick. When you’re aware of their key drivers, career goals, and development needs, you can task them with the work that will enthuse them. You’ll recognise the motivating factors for each employee and know how to adapt your leadership style to the approach that works best for each situation
By actively listening to your employees, understanding them and planning together with them, you’ll be a far more effective leader and will encourage employee engagement, loyalty and productivity.
8. Overworking People
Many business owners spend all hours working on their business. Their work-life balance is non-existent. But you can’t expect your entire team to do the same. They’re employed to work certain hours, and they shouldn’t be made to feel bad if they don’t work excess hours on top of that. Overworking employees leads to burnout, which has a negative impact on employee wellbeing, health and, ultimately, retention.
Asking people to work overtime on occasion – such as for a project launch or over the busy season – is fair enough. But it shouldn’t be assumed that employees will do that regularly. Similarly, ensure workloads are realistic and can be managed within reasonable working hours.
9. Lacking Vision
Great leaders have a strong vision for their business and possess the communication skills to convey that to their teams. They make everyone buy in to that vision and want to play their part in making it happen. Effective leadership brings employees together and encourages teamwork to achieve clear business goals.
It changes the dynamics of the work environment. It feels like an exciting and great place to work. People want to be a part of the process, are more willing to put in hard work and feel valued for their contribution. That means high employee satisfaction and retention.
When that vision is lacking, people question what they should be doing and why they should bother. It’s a far less enthusiastic and positive company culture. It may feel that the company’s going nowhere which will lead to higher staff turnover.
10. Being Inconsistent
There’s no ‘one size fits all’ approach to people management, but good leaders will always be fair. It could be over day-to-day things like approving leave requests, scheduling regular catch ups or providing equipment. But it could also be how you deal with bigger scenarios like performance management, career progression discussions or promotions. If you apply one rule to one person, but another rule for someone else, you’ll be seen as unfair and inconsistent.
If you want to be a respected and trusted leader, you need to standardise team rules and policies.
What are the Red Flags of Bad Management to Look for When Job Searching?
It can be hard to work out what a company’s really like before you join them. But use the recruitment process to highlight what it might be like to work for them. Here are a few red flags or warning signs to look out for during the recruitment process:
Staff turnover: if there seem to be an unusually large number of job vacancies, due to people leaving rather than the company expanding, it may indicate a poor company culture and low employee satisfaction. Try to find out why so many people are leaving.
Reviews and roles: check LinkedIn profiles for promotions and length of service. Read Glassdoor reviews for insights from people who know the company.
Referrals: if a manager only recruits people from their own network, they’re likely to have a very narrow scope. This will reduce the diversity of their team.
Tone of conversation: you can pick up on negative vibes and cynicism in an interview. If they share disrespectful comments or disregard for the business, it indicates an unhappy company culture.
Disorganisation: if interview arrangements keep changing or emails aren’t answered promptly, the manager and their business may be badly organised and in disarray.
Have More Great Days at Work
Do you recognise some of these poor management skills? Has this feature struck a chord with you? Whether you’re the manager or the employee, you can make changes to improve your work environment. Let me help you to transform your situation and make positive changes.
