Dealing With a Difficult Boss – You must have felt bad when you had to deal with and work with a bad boss. But there is a solution to this problem. Today, we present 10 smart tips and methods that will help you survive with a difficult boss.
Your dream job could be having good colleagues, a workplace that encourages employees to perform at their best, or having a boss who understands and encourages his subordinates to succeed together. In fact, your boss is almost another important variable that determines whether or not you will be successful in your career. If you find a good boss, that’s great. Unfortunately, not every boss is the kind of dream boss you want. Many bosses are like those straight out of a nightmare.
“No matter how bad your boss is, you still have to do your best.”
There is no guarantee that if you leave your current boss, your next boss will be better than the last. You work with a boss who has emotional problems, or shows obvious favoritism towards someone, or is a bully in the workplace, or a boss who is completely incompetent but still manages to become your boss, even if your boss is all of these things, you still have to make the best of your situation and get your job done.
To help you deal with these bosses, you need to rely on the following tips and methods for dealing with a bad boss or a difficult boss.
1. You need to be sure that you are dealing with a bad boss.
Before you try to fix a situation, make sure you really need to address it. Is your boss’s behavior really abnormal? Observe his behavior for a few days and see what he does well and what he doesn’t. If you find that your boss is acting badly, try to find reasons why you can forgive him. Consider whether he really did something wrong or whether it was something he couldn’t control.
2. Find out what motivates your boss.
Observe and try to understand why your boss does things or behaves in certain ways. There may be a reason or reasons why he behaves in the way he does, which may lead you to discover his management style. If he is not following a certain pattern, try to look deeper into his motivations for his actions.
3. Don’t let it affect your work.
Remember, it’s your job to do your job. No matter how bad your boss is, don’t let his bad behavior affect your work. You have to maintain your standards and have good relationships with other bosses in the company to keep your job. And don’t let a bad boss take up too much of your time. Spending time thinking about him won’t get your work done any faster. It will only slow you down and give your boss more reasons to be bad to you.
4. Take one step forward.
When dealing with a senior manager, be careful and avoid making your boss’s expectations and demands more than you can handle. Focus on getting your own work done before they come to you. The best way to prevent a bad situation between you and your boss is to guess what your manager expects you to do well, what needs to be done ahead of time, and what can wait. If you show your boss that you have a lot of work to do and that you are working hard, he or she will know that you are very responsible and do not need to follow your every move or give you too much extra work.
5. Define the scope
Working with a boss who doesn’t seem to have boundaries means you have to step up and set your own boundaries. One of the worst behaviors of bosses is that they often approach their employees with behaviors that they clearly don’t like. It’s important that you learn how to distance yourself from such behaviors, and if you can’t avoid it, don’t respond to the same behaviors. Just stay calm and do your job.
6. Stop thinking they know everything.
Just because they are in a managerial position doesn’t mean they are the best in the department or that they know everything. Your boss doesn’t have the answers to all your questions. What keeps them in a managerial position is their power, not because they know everything.
7. Act as a leader
When dealing with an incompetent boss, sometimes it’s best to make the decision to lead yourself. If you have defined your scope well, there’s no reason not to create or take action in a direction that you know will produce the best results for the company. People who make these decisions and produce good results will have peers who will follow suit and become unofficial leaders. But to avoid hurting your manager’s feelings too much, be sure to include him in your action plan.
8. Find your triggers
If your boss has anger management issues, figure out what triggers his anger and look for ways to avoid those triggers.
9. Use tips from couples therapy.
When dealing with disagreements, bring a coworker or some employees in the department into a therapy session like a couple going through a divorce. In other words, bring them together and work things out. When both parties talk about their perspectives, you give them a chance to explain and you give them a chance to hear their side of the story, rather than making assumptions and misunderstandings.
10. Avoid a bad boss in the future.
When you start interviewing with a new company, do your research ahead of time to make sure you don’t end up with a bad boss. Consider having coffee or lunch with one of the employees. Don’t worry, it’s obvious that you want to learn more about the company and its culture by inviting them over for coffee. However, use this opportunity to learn as much as you can about your future boss, without being rude to the employees.
Conclusion
Everyone has an ideal boss, but sometimes the boss becomes an element of the workplace that we cannot control. If you have the opportunity to find out about the future boss from the beginning, it is a good opportunity. But if you don’t get that opportunity, don’t quit and hope that the new company will have your ideal boss waiting for you. Our boss is also an employee who receives the company’s salary. Therefore, there is no guarantee that he will be good, skilled, and support us as he should be. If we can’t change the boss, what we can do is adjust ourselves.
We can all adapt to working with bad bosses. Don’t let their badness hinder your work or block your career opportunities. Try these 10 tips on how to deal with your bad boss at work, and you’ll be able to work effectively even if your boss is ineffective.
Reference:
10 Brilliant Tips for Dealing With a Difficult Boss
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