Intimidation Management Breeds Failure

20th July, 2010 - Posted by L. John Mason -

Working for a Bully

Have you ever had to work for a manager, supervisor, or executive who was a bully? I am thinking of a person in a leadership position who treats you like you are not a person with a brain. A person who treats you with no true respect and who expects you to do what you are told with out question, and often without a proper understanding or training so when you fail to meet their standards you are then accused of insubordination. When you question a request/order you are chastised and then reported to superiors and made to look like you sabotaged the program.

The intimidation that is used reminds you of what the Nazis must have done to control public opinion when they were leading the atrocities that were well documented at the end of World War II. Mind numb and fearful fellow employees seem to tolerate this bad management because they do not want to find themselves in the crosshairs of the “Bully’s” wrath. Fellow employees get depressed and begin to withdraw emotionally from their work. Gossip and blame begin to spread. Sabotage begins to surface.

It is the job and responsibility of the executive leadership to take control of the situation, but often they do not take any responsibility for their poor decisions, such as placing the Bully in the position to be a bully. Maybe because they have their own issues with bullies and so they can not find the gumption to do their jobs. The organization is threatened from the top down and from the bottom up. The CEO is responsible financially, legally, and morally but is often buffered from the blame by a lazy board of directors.

The bully fears being exposed. They know that they are doing evil but they know enough about politics to set up a subordinate manager to take the fall if legal challenges arise. The bully knows how to lie, exaggerate, and intimidate so they can wreak their mayhem without being held liable by their managers. They are so afraid of open dialogue and alternative discussion that they cut off group conversation and label it as whining or as a “pity party.”

No one likes the bully manager. No one with any common sense will trust the bully. No one who knows the bully respects the bully’s management style or this lack of humanity. People will fear the bully, but not respect them. Their organization’s reputation in the community suffers and so does their product. The only ones doing good work, hopefully, is the EAP counselors who have to help clean up the emotional mess left behind…