Do you hate your boss? (Even CEOs have bosses—they’re called Board members.) Do you remember a particularly bad boss, probably the one(s) you were most thankful to lose when you (or she) moved on?

Bad as he may have been, think about how much you learned from him.

Keith R. McFarland points this out in a commentary on what he calls anti-mentors.

Did you know that most managers say they learn as much, if not more, from their bad bosses than from the good ones. Of course, that may be because there are more bad ones—if not actively bad, then passively so.

Actively bad is self-explanatory, but what’s passively bad mean?

Passive means it’s unintentional, i.e., no malice afore thought. It includes

• benign neglect;
• ignorance;
• incompetence;
• confusion;
• indecisiveness;
• etc.

Passively bad bosses aren’t mean, cruel, arrogant, or vicious, and they definitely aren’t bullies.

They’re often well liked by their people, in spite of the way they manage—or don’t, as the case may be.

Either way, whichever kind you had, have now or have in the future, look carefully and you’ll find lessons that will serve to make you a better manager/peer/colleague throughout your career.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 10th, 2007 at 9:38 am and is filed under Business info, Culture, Leadership, Motivation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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