OK, here we go again with the Friday “5 Signs” post. I tried to channel my inner “Bad Boss” but then I realized, just think of some of the worst people you’ve worked with before. So here it is, 5 signs that your boss lacks intrapersonal intelligence.
- S/he’s a yeller. Now yelling doesn’t even have to be loud, it can be quite quiet but you sure know when you’ve been reamed out by the tone of voice. Yelling goes along with mood swings, grunts, facial twitches and other signs of emotional distress.
- Your boss takes all the credit for your successes but gives you the blame for his or her failures. Oh yeah. This is a wicked one. Problem is that it’s hard for upper management to catch whereas grunts and facial twitches are evident daily.
- Micromanaging. Yes, this does stem from Interpersonal Intelligence. The micro-manager can’t take any risks and you bear the brunt of stupid immaterial revisions and much second guessing.
- Flip- flopping. Yes, this is a management term. Just look it up. Flip-floppers are ones who can’t make up their minds, especially in challenging situations. There they go again, changing their minds as frequently as their underwear.
- Keeping grudges. Remember that time you didn’t complete that report correctly back in February. (You probably got yelled at for that too.) Well for sure that will be a part of this year’s performance appraisal, no matter how immaterial it is.
Fortunately, the weekend is here and if you’ve got one of these bosses then you have a few days to chill out and get ready for another week of job searching.
Thanks for your recent posts. In future posts, I’d love to hear some of your tactics for working and relating with bosses who lack intrapersonal intelligence.
That’s a complex question. I think the gist of it is that you’ve got to figure out how to meet their needs while making them aware of how they could see things from a different perspective, that being an emotional perspective.