The Leap to Leader: How Ambitious Managers Make the Jump to Leadership (for True Epub) by Adam Bryant

Author:Adam Bryant
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press
Published: 2023-05-30T00:00:00+00:00

Stay or Go?

During your career, you will likely encounter moments when you will be wondering whether you should stay or leave your job—whether it’s because you are working for a bad boss or you want to explore new opportunities elsewhere. Let’s take on that question, but with my usual disclaimer. I can’t answer these questions for you. No one can, and no one should, but you. That said, here is some valuable advice that should help you think about the stay-or-go choice.

For starters, if your boss is outright hostile or abusive, you should not tolerate them. The world has changed dramatically in the last several years, and more companies are saying that they have zero tolerance for bad behavior from managers, and they are backing up those words with action. Yes, there always will be risks of backlash or repercussions if you call out an abusive manager, but that calculation is different today than it was even a decade ago. As more companies worry about recruiting and retaining the best talent, they know that bad bosses can be a risk to that strategy, and they increasingly want to know about them and send them packing. Employee surveys are asking more specific questions about people’s relationship with their manager, and so bad bosses will pop up like blips on a radar screen if their team is complaining about them. Find ways to make your voice heard on behaviors from your boss that clearly step over the line.

But what if the nuances of what makes a manager bad are more subtle? Your boss may not be stepping over any line, but they are endlessly frustrating and demotivating. They don’t listen. They micromanage. They’re moody. They try to keep you in a box rather than helping you grow and find other opportunities. They don’t advocate for you, and you suspect they may even be undermining you. They provide no clear direction. They write overly critical performance reviews filled with surprising feedback that they never shared with you before. They make clear in everything they say and do that they care more about their own career than yours, and that they see you simply as an asset to help them. They take credit for your work. They seem to enjoy creating unnecessary stress, like sending cryptic emails to come to their office later in the day, without signaling why. They’re always second-guessing your judgment. They expect you to be able to read their mind. I could go on, because like all of us, I’ve had my share of bad bosses.

The first step—let’s start with the positive—is to study your bosses and learn from them what not to do. As you are developing your own leadership style, it will be informed by the great bosses you had but also by the difficult ones. You will remember so well what it felt like to be mistreated or badly managed that you will probably go out of your way to do the opposite. “People should understand that

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