To grow a garden you basically need seeds, water, and lots of sunlight to help bring the eager seedlings above ground for all to see. But to grow a toxic workplace, all you need are a few controlling people to make sure things stay hidden and off limits … with the help of cover-up culture.

Interestingly enough, often the guiding principle begins as “the end justifies the means.” The folks employing these arguably Machiavellian principles tell themselves that their intention is a good one. And that the outcome will be worth it as a greater good. But people negatively affected in the process may not agree.

⇒  How To Deal With a Bully Boss

⇒  My Boss Tries To Control Everything!

What does cover-up culture mean?

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Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about productivity goals. Yes … I do have extra time on my hands. But it’s just that I see the word productivity blasted all over social media. How to get more for yourself. How to encourage others to produce more for your company. And how we can be more productive even in meditation and downtime!

Here’s the problem IMHO: more isn’t always more. Or better. It’s just quantifiable. And other measures of accomplishments are not so easily grasped. You can’t hold workplace flow and a creative, rewarding environment in your hands.

Do productivity goals have value?

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Do you ever start out imagining you’ll hate being a boss? Of course not. Many of us can’t wait to become the boss. Finally you can do things the right way. You no longer have to be at the mercy of others who are in charge. Or so you think.

But being a boss has its own problems. First of all, unless you own the business, you usually have other bosses. Even if you are the head cheese, there might still be a Board or an Executive Committee to answer to. Or, more often, just the next boss up the totem pole.

 Why you might hate being boss

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Hate managing others? You’re not alone. I recently got a great comment from Angela on my I Hate Being a Boss post.  She’d had it up to HERE with being a manager — and she wasn’t going to take it any more!

While browsing my stats, I often see search terms like “I hate my employees” “I hate being boss” and “I hate being manager.” And it makes me realize just how many people out there — maybe even your own boss – really hate managing people and don’t even want to be boss!

Here’s some of what what Angela shared with us in her comment: [Read more…]

To be clear, “When Bosses Cry” is not a new version of an old Prince song. I just thought it was time to talk about things from a boss’ perspective. Especially problem employees — or what I sometimes like to call “very special people” (VSPs). They can bring even the best boss to tears!

I get lots of visits to this blog from searches looking for help with awful bosses. And problem bosses of all kinds. And there are certainly plenty of lousy bosses who make their employees lives miserable. We’ve talked about them before and will again.

But just for now, I’d like to talk about a different kind of problem … good bosses who have to deal with problem employees. Their very own VSPs.

Richard’ “special” problem employees

Let’s turn first to someone I’ll call Richard, who manages a government office. Richard is one of the kindest, most caring people I know. And he spends a lot of time thinking about how to make sure he’s doing what he can to address employee concerns and needs. Even the small stuff many bosses would ignore.

But he has a few VSPs who recently have been finding problems with everything he asks them to do and seem to have ganged up on him. [Read more…]

What makes a great leader?

OK. Clearly the post title is a bad pun. Hope you and Trekkies everywhere can forgive me for that. But the point I want to make is a much more important one. Lots of people get put in charge of staff, but what truly makes a great leader?

I started thinking about this when a friend asked me for some names of iconic leaders throughout history. Half-kidding, I offered the name James T. Kirk. My friend, who in her defense is not a Star Trek fan, asked whether Captain Kirk was seen as a good guy or just plain “dumb.”

Now maybe I should take a moment to explain that I am indeed a Star Trek fan — original show, spin-offs, and films. While I’m no Trekkie and could never decipher even the most basic Klingon phrase without an official Klingon translator, the mere thought of Kirk being called “dumb” made my non-Vulcan blood boil.

So Was James T. Kirk a Great Leader?

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It was the worst of Boards. It was the best of Boards. This is the story of two different nonprofit Boards. But the way they operate is like night and day. And that can mean all the difference to the health and sustainability of the nonprofit organization itself.

It’s kind of ironic how organizations designed to do wonderful things can sometimes treat their own staff so badly. These are really hard jobs and most workers give their all to serve the mission. And they deserve respect even from their all-powerful Board.

A tale of two nonprofit Boards

I recently had the chance to watch two very different nonprofit boards in action. But they were veyr different. And unfortunately representative of a lot of nonprofits out there.

Scary Board Story #1

In this example, the Board Chair decided to go after the Executive Director (ED), who created the agency in the first place. And he had worked his butt off over the years to bring it to where it was. [Read more…]

If you ask different managers about their toxic culture definition, you probably will get different answers. I see the term “toxic culture” used all the time. And I’m sure each of us has some mental picture of what a toxic workplace might look like.

Seeing it discussed so often lately, got me thinking. Does everyone have the same view of the concept? For some managers, could detoxing include wiping out things like diverse thinking and non-traditional (creative) approaches? Seems silly, but what if they threaten the normal flow of their idea of a healthy workplace?

⇒  ALSO:  How Cover-Up Culture Helps Grow a Toxic Workplace

Definition of toxic culture?

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One of the biggest management mistakes any manager can make is letting the word “don’t” dominate their management style. Yet it’s fairly common practice for many managers — especially ones who are new to the job.

⇒   15 Mistakes Inexperienced Managers Make

When you “don’t” your staff [Read more…]

Work meetings can be notoriously big time-wasters. So we create agendas to help keep our meetings from going off into all kinds of directions. And from never getting to the original point. But they aren’t always well-thought through. So I put together a basic sample meeting agenda to help you keep your business meetings on track.

Not that agendas can do all the heavy lifting. But a really good agenda (with some added guideposts) can make all the difference. It can help the person running the meeting keep people on topic. And provides everyone with a roadmap for where the meeting needs to go. It can also help you realize when you actually get there!

Basic Sample Meeting Agenda

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One of the most exciting things in anyone’s career is that first time you get promoted to manager. Finally, a chance to show your real talents and put fresh ideas into action. And, while still bathed in that glow of success, you probably give little thought to all the mistakes inexperienced managers make. Mistakes you might also unknowingly make.

Of course, there are some of us new managers (yes, I was one of them) who do worry from day one that we might screw up big time. Or get eaten alive by more experienced employees (who were passed over for the job), now gleefully watching from the sidelines for our mistakes.

Unfortunately, whatever our level of awareness about mistakes, we’re going to make them. It’s inevitable. But knowing some potential pitfalls can help.

Sarah’s mistake-filled story

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With all the talk of late about inappropriate passes (or worse) from bosses, we should remember that harassment has many forms. Unwanted advances can also go in the other direction, such as when an employee has a crush (or worse) on their boss.

Now I’m not in any way minimizing the very real situation where the person in power — the boss — takes advantage of an employee. There’s absolutely no excuse for that. And we’ve let it go on far too long. With internal support, including Human Resources, more often than not helping to “smooth” things over for the boss. (Read that as cover up!)

When crush comes from your own staff

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