Inner Circle - Bad Bosses: Command and Control is Killing Your Team!

What's up, everybody? Hope everybody is doing awesome. This is your inner circle weekly video, the second week of July post fourth of July holiday. I hope you had a great and safe holiday weekend. And we are going to continue our Bad boss video series. And we're going to talk about two bad bosses today. The Michael Scott and the chief everything officer, the CEO. And in these two Personas, these are examples, hopefully to help you identify what what these behaviors look like, but also to make sure that you're not conducting any of these behaviors that's important. Okay? So we're have a little fun with this particular month. Life is serious enough, so let's have some fun. Okay? If you're watching this video, you're either a client, a past client, or you're someone that has subscribed to the inner circle to get everything, leadership and personal development. And the topic of today are two infamous bad bosses. The first is Michael Scott. And as you guys know, Michael Scott is from the hit sitcom the Office. So let's talk about the Personas. You know, Michael Scott I would deem as a bumbling, inappropriate boss from the show the Office. And if you've ever watched the show, you'll know that Michael Scott's character misuses sarcasm and humor and often at the worst possible times. Now, Michael Scott also deflects blame, pointing his finger at other people rather than taking responsibility. And he uses humor and sarcasm to cover up the issues, which makes it very difficult for employees to take him seriously. Now, I'm gonna give you three bullet points of really, truly identifying this bad boss. One, inappropriate use of humor. If you find yourself saying that's what she said in the Office, probably not the best use. It could be funny, but may not be the best use of being professional in the workplace. The second bullet point is a boss that deflects blame constantly pointing the finger at other people, never owning responsibility. These are very bad attributes. And then the final is someone that's always sarcastic or trying to be utilizing humor that just lacks the seriousness. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm pretty laid back, pretty easygoing, but there are moments in time when I want to get after it, right? And sarcasm isn't always the best to be used. And traditionally it is masking truth by making fun of something or someone. So most people see right through sarcasm. With sarcasm comes I would deem as not great body language. So Michael Scott's antics are great for a TV character, right? But a leader in real life like this creates a toxic work environment. And I've Said it before, toxic employees are the only cancer that is contagious. So don't be a Michael Scott. Because employees feel undervalued, they feel misunderstood, which seriously impacts morale and productivity. The second bad boss Persona that we're gonna cover today is the CEO. And not, like me, the CEO, the Chief Executive officer. But this CEO is the chief everything officer. Okay? Now this bad boss Persona is very what we would call ego driven. They want to be everyone's favorite person. They need to be in the know of everything that's going on, which often means that they're probably microman. They're often nosy, and sometimes they're not productive because they're walking around gossiping all the time. So this particular CEO lacks self awareness, is a perfectionist with other people's results, but not their own. In fact, their own results are very sloppy. And it's someone that I would deem as talks the talk but doesn't walk the walk. They're arrogant, borderline narcissistic. So some bullet points for you to think about are one, ego driven, the need for approval, lacking self awareness is another. Being a perfectionist with others, but not themselves. And then someone that talks the talk but doesn't walk the walk. This type of leader obviously is detrimental to your team. Their need for control stifles innovation. Their need for control stifles growth. The lack of self awareness leads to inconsistent behaviors and honestly, a lot of times, unfair expectations. Now you've probably heard me say this before. I'm not a huge fan of the term fair. Fair is fleeting. I think things need to be equitable, right? Guaranteed same opportunities, but not guarantee the same outcomes. I think there's a big difference. And I think people that want fair, they're saying things aren't fair because the outcomes aren't the same. And I believe as individuals, we all are responsible for our own outcomes. And so when we have this chief everything officer that's working for us, it's a tough place to go. And I remember one of my first bosses, while he is command and control, he is definitely a CEO. He is a chief everything officer mixed with that command and control Persona, needed to be involved in everything, every minor detail. He put his thumb on. He wanted his fingerprints on everything because he wanted the credit. Now when things went sideways, it was always somebody else's fault. There's never a moment where I can ever recall him falling on his sword. And in fact, I remember I was working for him during 911 and my wife called me after the first plane hit the first tower. And I immediately thought, and I'm in an open, what we call the bullpen. So I had a lot of other co workers sitting around me and I was like, oh my gosh, a plane had one of the Trade center towers. And I was in Houston, Texas at this time. And his comment in that moment, I'll never forget. Well, why do you care? Is anybody you love in New York? Now, to his defense, I don't think he understood what was about to happen. Right. I'm sure he probably thought, like me, that this was just a, you know, a small plane, a commuter plane or something along the lines of that that was, you know, an air traffic control accident. But he had an opportunity to apologize with being so insensitive and he never did. And that always stuck with me. So you don't want to be that chief everything officer, right? You don't want to. You certainly don't want to be that Michael Scott. But. But what can we learn from these bad boss Personas? First, we have to have self awareness. You need somebody that can help you point out your blind spots. And even if you have someone that is helping you point out those blind spots, are they helping you fix those blind spots? Are they helping you overcome those challenges? How are you aware to those challenges? You know, how do those behaviors or how do those actions or lack thereof impact the behaviors and impact the teams around you? Because that's crucial to understand. The second is delegation is not a sign of weakness. It's a sign of strength and trusting your team and empower your team to do their best work. And so the chief everything officer that wants their thumbprint on everything and wants credit for everything often could diminish this delegation of authority, which is the right way to go. Unless it's a new employee or someone in a new role, then delegating tasks is entirely appropriate until they learn the standards and learn what expectations that they have for their roles. As we summarize here, there's a few things that I'm going to show you. One, you need to develop self awareness. If you're going to use humor, use it appropriately. You know, keep it above the line. If you will take responsibility for your actions and take responsibility for your team's actions because they are a reflection on you. You want to delegate appropriately and effectively delegate autonomy where it's necessary and then walk the talk. If you say you're going to do something, do something. If you say I'm going to commit to meeting with my employees this many times in a week or a month, or a quarter, whatever the time period is, you got to do it. Okay? If you don't and now it's out there that you're supposed to meet with them. This is just a continuation of stepping in potholes that you know, honestly are going to get tougher and tougher the more potholes you get to get yourself out of it. So avoiding the pitfalls of Michael Scott and the chief everything officer, we can become leaders who inspire and motivate and really drive a positive work environment. Environment. Right. So once again, I hope you had a great fourth weekend. Thanks for watching. Thank you for being a part of my community of inner circle and I hope you found this video helpful. We're going to have some more fun next couple of weeks with some bad bosses. So until then, join us next time for the Inner Circle Leadership Weekly video. And keep growing, keep leading. Talk to you soon.