Let’s imagine that we had the luxury to work where we wanted to, to choose the company we worked for, and to even choose the boss/supervisor we reported to. What would we want?
In one sense, we would want someone to hire us, and then leave us alone to do our job. But, that is not really what we want. What we really want is someone to hire us, and then do everything possible to help us get better at doing our job – this current job, and what ever job is next.
And, we definitely do not want to work for someone who is hurting our ability to do our best work.
These thoughts come from two insightful excepts from The Coming Jobs War by Jim Clifton. Here are the two excerpts:
If you have a great job — one with unlimited growth opportunity, a manager who is interested in your development, and that gives you a sense of mission and purpose — you have about the best life you can have at this time in human history.
and
If a leader chooses good managers, everything works. If a leader assigns the wrong person as manager, everything fails. Nothing fixes bad managers, not coaching, competency training, incentives, or warnings — nothing works. A bad manager never gets better.
So, here are the traits:
A great job has:
1) Unlimited growth opportunity
2) A manager who is interested in you (as a person) and in your development
3) The ability to instill within you you a sense of mission and purpose
And, a bad job, a bad work situation is –
• one with a bad manager.
I find his conclusion, that “nothing fixes bad managers…a bad manager never gets better,” pretty disturbing. And, sadly, I agree. I’m convinced it is possible to take an average manager, and make him/her better. It is possible to take a person who has the “potential”’ (what a loaded word) to be a good manager, and help that person develop that potential. But nothing fixes a “bad” manager.
{I would love for some of our business coaches and consultants who read our blog to weigh in on this.}
Now, what do we all do with this? How about: if you are a manager, work really hard at being a good and always-getting-better manager. If you are a bad manager, fess up… and do something else. Because if you are a bad manager, you are hurting the people you manage.
And, for all of us, we need to aim at growing, developing, and focusing clearly on fulfilling the mission and purpose of our organization.
First Friday Book Synopsis 
Randy, this is a very intriguing observation. The question it raises in my mind is, “Why can’t bad managers become good managers?” I think there are two fundamental reasons.
The first one is that they don’t care about improving. As the Director of Leadership Development for SGR, I work with some great managers and leaders. Here’s what I notice. The good ones are constantly attempting to get better, no matter how good they already are! They prove the old adage, “Leaders are Learners!” They are very self-aware of the impact that they have on individuals and upon the organization as a whole, and they are keen on making the most of that impact. They are focused on continually improving.
Conversely, the ones who you can see are sucking the life out of their employees and their organization don’t seem to have a clue that they are doing it. Not only that, but for the most part, they have no sense of urgency about growing as a leader or manager. It is clear from their words that in their mind, whatever the problem is, it surely isn’t their problem. The problem is always, and I do mean, always, with someone else.
The second reason is that there is a huge difference in their paradigms. As Clifton points out, good managers focus on developing people. They care about developing their employees and about helping them be successful. However, it amazes me that the managers that are not focused on improving their own leadership skills, don’t really care about developing others either. Bad managers focus on their own success. To them it’s just “Git ‘er done!” Ironically, it is counter-productive. It really is, but the bad managers, it seems to me, cannot make the paradigm shift.
And that’s why they suck the life out of people and organizations.