10 Traits of Bad Managers

Management is very vital in business success, as a result, these 10 traits of bad managers will be of help in your management hiring decisions. To a very great extent, the life of your business hinges on the kind of management structure you have. This is because every other thing your business depends on to survive sits on the management structure and style in place. Therefore, as an entrepreneur who wants to desperately succeed, you must be very concerned about who manages your business and how.

It is unfortunate to know that many managers are ruining businesses. In fact, a good number of businesses fold up because of bad management. But you don’t want to be paying a manager so much money and getting less than the best, do you? As long as you have hired the service of a manager for your business, you need to demand for the best and make sure you have it. Don’t forget that as the business owner, you will bear the consequences of the failures of anyone on the business.

Some of the things managers are hired to do daily are:

Set goals and targets for workers and for themselves

Break down goals to smaller activities

Delegate responsibilities to carry out the activities

Motivate workers as they work

Measure output against original goals

Handle conflicts that arise in the process

Make vital decisions for the organization

Ensure that deadlines are met

However, there are different types of managers. There are project managers, operations managers, human resource managers, financial managers, etc. The bottom line is that, they all plan, organize, direct, motivate, monitor and control in the most efficient way to see that with the limited resources (men, money, materials, and machines) they get the best results.

I have come across different managers with different management styles. From my experience, I have found certain traits in bad managers that will ruin a business if not dealt with. There are many things managers do that ruin businesses, but these are some that are very commonly subtle:

1. They Know It All

Bad managers never ask questions. They want to be known as people who have all the answers. Because they think they know it all, they also try to do it all. Such managers are very poor at developing the workers they manage since they will hardly delegate responsibilities. Their work environment is not friendly, but filled with strife and unhealthy competition. They are always trying to prove a point. This is very unhealthy for the business.

To be made the manager of a business is not an award for knowing it all and having answers to all questions. Good managers know that they don’t need to be good at everyone’s job in order to be effective. Rather, they need to hire the best and make the most out of their skills and knowledge. If you have as much knowledge as all your workers, it means you did not hire the right persons in the first place. This is an indication of your incompetence.

“You don’t have to know everything, as long as you know people who know the things you don’t” – Harvey Mackay

“You’re only as good as the people you hire” – Raymond Albert Kroc

2. They Focus On Individuals

One temptation every manager must overcome is the temptation of focusing on building particular employees of the business. Bad managers fall into this temptation always. For whatever reasons, they easily show their preference for particular workers and this causes them to spend most of their time building those individuals rather than building a team. This is portrayed as they delegate responsibilities, appraise staffs, build a sense of ownership in staffs, etc. This is very dangerous for any business.

As a manager, you will achieve more when you hire competent workers with different personalities and facilitate the process of each one of them adapting to the work environment and performing as part of a team. Your emphasis should always be team spirit and not individual success. As a result, everyone gets developed and feels special.

3. They Focus More On Results

Bad managers are very result-oriented. So much such that they care very little about how the results are gotten, who gets hurt in the process, what is damaged along the way, etc. All that makes them happy is when the business is making good profit. Such managers only end up hurting many people and this automatically takes away the results.

Good managers focus on people. They seek to have the best persons for the job, ensure that the persons they have are in their best shape for work and do everything to ensure that they are motivated enough to do their best. When they do this and succeed, they automatically get the results they desire to see.

4. They Lead From Above

Bad managers lord it over their subordinates. They take decisions independently, expecting their subordinates to accept and implement them. Often, they succeed to implement their decision but hardly get the results they desired. This is because their subordinates accept their decisions but don’t fully embrace them. This leaves them feeling frustrated.

Good managers lead from below. In other words, they find a way of involving even the cleaners and yard men in their management. Sometimes they allow their subordinates to make proposals for management. They don’t necessarily take everything from their subordinates, but allow their subordinates to participate in the decision-making process while they make the final decision. Ultimately, they show their subordinates how important they are to the business success.

5. They Focus More On Reputation

As soon as some persons are made managers, they start trying to live up to the expectations of their subordinates. These are bad managers. Management is not much about dressing in suits, carrying a brief case, walking tall and talking big. It is getting down and producing results out of the people you manage. It is building systems that are capable of standing in the midst of crises. When you do these and succeed, then comes the reputation for good management.

Managers who focus on reputation are very concerned about what their subordinates think about them than the work they do. They want to impress the business stakeholders. They could easily take wrong decisions because what is at the center of their decisions is not the business, but making people think good of them. This is very crucial for business success.

6. They Take All The Credits

Because bad managers focus more on reputation than results, they are always bothered about who takes the credit for every success and the blame for every failure. Usually, they take the credits and always find someone else to throw the blame at. This is a very common trait with many managers.

Who gets the credit, should be the least thing that matters to any good manager. Every good manager would rather see this as a tool to utilize in order to boost the performances of staff. Good managers know how to shower praises on teams when they succeed and how to correct them when they fail. This increases performance.

7. Their Glass Is Always Half Empty

Bad managers have the habit of always complaining and demanding, never appreciating nor commending. They are hardly satisfied with what their subordinates do. Some of them feel that appreciating will make their workers go to sleep but the reverse is always the case. Complaining always will water down the spirit of hard work in your workers and make them feel frustrated. Nobody can always be wrong.

A good manager knows this and looks out for the good qualities in his subordinate, to praise. Good managers appreciate little successes and big ones. They use this a lot to bring out the best in their workers. They are always looking for something good in what their workers do, to praise. Through my career I have enjoyed a lot of this from my managers. This has caused me to strive always for excellence.

8. They Are Unprofessional

Every profession has ethics. Every work place has rules and regulations. Managers are usually the ones expected to exemplify these ethics in a work place. Unfortunately, some managers encourage unprofessional behaviors in the work place. Bad managers get to work late, listen to gossips, encourage strife and unhealthy competition, treat staff differently, fall out with staff, steal from the business, etc.

All these are very unprofessional tendencies and will make a manager to lose respect before his/her staff. Every attitude of a manager that is against the norms of his profession or the business which he manages is unhealthy for the business.

9. They Compromise On Standards

As a manager, one thing you are always tempted to do is to compromise the standards. This sometimes looks like the only way to go, but turns out to affect the performance of the business as a whole. When you set standards for the business, ensure that they are maintained to the least. One of the things you will always be respected for is your attitude against compromising standards.

Note that when you begin to compromise on standards, the workers will always want to keep doing so. Your approach to work must be strong.

10. They Talk More And Do Less

Bad managers are good talkers and poor workers. It is very easy to find them spending time on trivial issues while very delicate matters are pending to be handled. Bad managers could easily be seen idle when there is work to be done. It is easy to see them working late after office hours, not because there is much work to be done, but because they are lazy. They love meetings.

Good managers allow their results to speak for them. They love work and always create work for themselves. They don’t spend much of their time on things that are not related to the work they do. They are very work-conscious and want their workers to always be.

Businesses are very much a reflection of the kind of managers they have. Don’t ruin your business by getting a bad manager for it. Ensure that your manager is good for your business and it will succeed. Make your comments below.