5 Life-Changing Lessons I Learned from Having Bad Bosses

5 Life-Changing Lessons I Learned from Having Bad Bosses When youve had as many jobs as Ive had (16 so far), you inevitably get a bad anfhrer or two. No boss thinks hes bad, no boss is purposely lame and even bad bosses can teach you something. They just dont realize theyre teaching you how to work for bad bosses. They force you to learn how to adapt, adjust and advocate. herbeie are five examples of bad bosses and what Ive learned from each. ? ?1. The CriticManagerial feedback is necessary to correctly complete projects, but this guy thought it welches his job to find something wrong with my work and he did it like, well, a boss. The bigger my mistake was, the louder his voice got.?What I learned Clarification.When given an assignment, I repeated his instructions back to him. When I messed up, I waited until he cooled down and said I dont want to repeat my mistake. What would you like me to do differently next time?? ?2. The BullyThis narcissist was concerned about impressing her bo ss and suspicious of why I wanted more responsibility. Her catch-phrase was Ill let you know when I dont like something. Until then, assume youre doing okay.?What I learned Making the bosss life easier is an unwritten item in all job descriptions.I asked How will I know if theres something more I can do to make your life easier unless you tell me how well Im doing my job? She got promoted.? ?3. The Invisible ManHe was out of the office more than in it. There was no coaching, no untersttzung and my team had to lead ourselves. Often, he didnt tell us what the deliverable should look like, then got frustrated when he didnt get the results he expected. We had plenty of fire drills. ?What I learned How to nag gracefully.I would constantly ask, would you please explain to us what outcome you expect and when? If he did not respond to an email in 24 hours, I left a note on his chair. When we met with clients outside the office, I asked him to drive. I brought my questions and took notes on the way.? ?4. The MicromanagerShe was a control freak. She wanted to know what I was doing and why I was doing it that way. She wanted to binnensee emails to my customers before I sent them, and approve every expense before the purchase, no matter how small.?What I learned Over-communication.I deluged her with updates via daily emails, weekly one-on-ones and monthly reports. I wrote down everything I did so I could account for my activities at a moments notice. I spent more time documenting the job than actually doing it.? ?5. The FlirtHe noticed what clothes I wore and commented on their material. He wanted to meet about my projects alone and often. This was about power not attraction. He emphasized his authority by making me feel vulnerable.?What I learned Set boundaries immediately and document every uncomfortable interaction in case I need to involve HR.The first time he stood too close, I took a half step back and said, My personal space boundary is right abouthere. When he did it again, I did not step back and said, Whoops, I have a personal space boundary, remember? After the third time, he got the message.The common denominator for surviving all five was communication. Listening, relieving their pain points and establishing boundaries was the key to working with these bad, bad bosses.