Dealing with a Narcissistic Boss
Narcissistic Personality: a personality disorder characterized by extreme self-centeredness and self-absorption, fantasies involving unrealistic goals, an excessive need for attention and admiration, and disturbed interpersonal relationships.
Steven Demaio wrote and great post, “Leading When You Don’t Have Formal Authority”, In that post he talks about three principles. The one I liked the most and so often see is…
Demonstrate excellence without being cocky or solicitous of approval. “Bearing the burden of someone else’s ego is always a turn-off, whether the ego is already big or in need of puffing up. When an ego-driven person is your direct manager, you just hold your nose and do your best to perform in spite of the stench… Needy leaders are rarely inspiring.”
Just as an FYI to you…this is a problem that isn’t going to resolve itself, as vanity (excessive pride in one’s self, qualities, abilities, achievements) is rewarded in our society. Your ego driven boss is probably getting support from every one of his/her supervisors for this kind of behavior.
Taking the Next Hill
I don’t know about you, but I am the type of person who needs a challenge or a hill to climb to get motivated. I have found this to be true in both my professional and personal life and now I find it true in my spiritual life. In my professional life I love coming into a challenging situation with the odds stacked against me. Many times in these situations whatever task is at hand is not the popular choice with the masses. So, I typically find myself swimming against the current of the mainstream. These types of situations usually require confronting the current culture or environment that is already embedded in a work situation. To me, I see this as a hill; it motivates me, keeps me engaged and challenges me to work hard, set goals and see the changes that take place slowly over time. I have experienced this several times in my career and it is not a quick fix. It takes both time and I remaining constantly engaged to see it through. Staying constantly engaged is the key to success in this situation. With my personality and the need to “take” the hill it is not difficult to stay engaged.
It Is Tough To Find Good Help!
Many organizations around the world are finding it increasingly difficult to find good help. As a hiring manager, I have experienced firsthand how difficult it can be to find an employee who is both dedicated and motivated. That being said, finding an employee who demonstrates the below three characteristics on a regular basis is easier said than done. Let’s look at the three main areas employees tend to fall into.
1. How is your employee behavior?
In past blogs, I have already discussed “changing behavior”. Employee behavior can be good and bad. Does your employee make personal phone calls, surf the internet, read the paper or make idle chit chat with co-workers during working hours instead of calling your customers or performing their duties? Are your employees performing the right behaviors on a consistent basis in order to give your organization the best chance for success? I would say from my experience it is very rare when you have an employee who does not need to be held accountable for their utilizations over the course of an eight hour work day. I am not advocating total control or micro-management, but I do believe it is the leader’s role to know during the course of a work day if the employee’s actions were legitimate or not legitimate toward their utilization. Let’s face it, in most cases, not all, our human nature naturally tells us to coast or relax a bit when no one is looking. This very statement leads me onto area number two.
Controlling What You Can Control…a Balanced Approach to Organizational Success!
In my posting prior to this one I discussed leadership versus management, if you have not taken time to read that leadership lesson, I encourage you to do that first by clicking here. It will give a bit more insight and maybe give this posting a bit more context of where I am coming from. I will also refer back to that post some, so it will give you a frame of reference as well. 
Previously, we discussed the 10% that is not going well in your organization and the 10 times longer it may take to identify, fix and change the behavior behind the 10% not going well. Why is controlling the 10% so critical to your organizations success? The answer lies in the fact that there is so much outside of your control that you absolutely have to control the things you can control. If you are only controlling 90% of the 100% you can control, then you and your organization are not hitting the maximum potential of the organization. And eventually that will be discovered and someone will be in place that will control 100% of what is controllable. Organizational success is based on 10% of what is outside your control and 90% what you do control. If you don’t control it someone else will.
-
Page Views Since January 2008
-
