My current boss took a massive risk with me when he brought me on board, he made it clear as well from the beginning, however this “pressure” has made be perform better than expected – year on year January had a 500% increase in leases generated via online sources down to the work I put in.

He brought me in whilst I was at dominos as a delivery driver, no experience or knowledge in SEO, online marketing or lead generation. He had the attitude of online is your baby, your one and only goal is create leads and you have X budget for the year, learn and do what you think is best.

This for me worked perfectly as I’m always hungry to learn, stupendous hunger to succeed and a terrible addiction to the stock markets so when he mentioned shares in the company I was super focused.

Life story over – to me this was the perfect example of how a boss should treat his team; give freedom, set targets (hard and achievable) early and frequently, reward greatly (Las Vegas trips etc) but demand growth. The pressure is always there but the desire to succeed and grow far outweighs it.

I couldn’t agree more with your post. I’ve worked for many managers, and have experienced that the number one reason why most people leave their jobs has nothing to do with traveling distance, or money. It’s mostly to do with their manager. I can’t understand why it’s so difficult for some people to give recognition where it’s due, to give constructive criticism instead of subjecting their employees to forms of humiliation or belittling. I wrote a similar article called, “Step Up Boss – Why Employees Leave” on News24 last year for the opinions section, which was chosen as an Editor’s pick. It gained over 4000 views and many comments, which is evident that there are a lot of unhappy employees out there who feel similar. Thanks for the great post! Sharing across.

Conversely – a great manager can keep people where they are. My team of folks has a half dozen techies who are all over qualified at this point, but our manager is totally reliable, respectful, organized, flexible when we need to do some work/life balancing, keeps the time sucking meeting buzzards at bay and generally does such a good job of making where we work a great environment to be productive and get things done that we are all staying until we retire if we have anything to say about it. Or until he retires, whichever. I guess I’m saying this applies even more to people who have high skills and are mobile employment-wise. If you want to keep a highly skilled workforce – make your managers they best they can be and you’ll probably get farther than anything you might directly offer the people you want to keep in your organization.

I worked for a top-10 software company a long time ago, and hear this from someone who was there. At an executive staff meeting, EVP goes to the board and writes ‘morale’. The CEO says “Fuck morale. We pay ‘em, don’t we?”.

Most of my direct managers in that company were fantastic, but the top 2-3 layers were toxic.

Your point is a good one, but the reference to Maslow’s hierarchy seems a bit of a reach. Please see https://www.quora.com/Answers-Quora-feature/Is-Maslows-hierarchy-of-needs-overused-as-an-answer-to-questions/answer/Don-Blohowiak for further explanation.

There are, I would dare say, BIG exceptions to this rule. The only reason I’m still with my current “employer” (I’ve been consulting for the same client for 3 years now) is the fact that my boss, and his boss (my direct manager’s position had been vacant for quite a while) are good people to work with. The rest of the entity that is my client is absolutely horrible, but they pay well. Too well. Nevertheless, had I had someone mediocre (or the least bit annoying) as a manager, I would’ve taken off long time ago, most likely. The same story holds true for most of my peers here, either staff or consultants.

Managers are not neccesary for a lot of work, especially engineering. Valve and Gore are the two best examples of alternative structures that serve their employees needs better.

Managers have traditional acted as clearing houses of information. When they become responsible for everyones actions they tend to manage that information less towards the goals of the company and more towards saving there ass or taking credit. At Gore, they have the role of secretary. All departments meet seperately in groups of 8 to 12 with one secretrary. Then all the secretaries meet and bring news back from the rest of the company. Information is ditributed without the ego.

At the Valve, there are not managers. Everyone votes on who is adding value to the company and nobody can command people to do anything. Praise is distributed correctly and people have incentive to work harder because they have really equity and esteem among their colleagues.

I can’t even begin to tell you how awesome this post is…and sadly too true.

As a person who has managed many people over the years (as well as who has been managed), I feel the best quality a manager can possess is the ability to empower your employees with autonomy and growth challenges. Instead of barking commands, you need to guide and shape them to their growth. And when they do something awesome, tell them.

Too many managers I’ve encountered want to control outcomes and end up alienating the people they should be encouraging.

It’s a nice, well-written article, but it’s pure entertainment. With only one exception, I’ve never had anyone in management even go so far as to consider the points listed above, let alone think of them as anything but a joke. We work for the money, nothing else. The boss and the board want to keep as much of that money as possible. If the workers burn out, they get replaced.

I’ve been in the workplace 30 years, most of it as a contractor in IS. That means I’m hourly, no work no pay, and can afford to buy my own health insurance. The direct employee next to me makes less than half the money I do with no job security and a 50 to 70 hour work week while being paid for 40.

It’s been pretty well established by several industry studies that it is, in fact, true that the working relationship with the manager is the top reason why people leave their jobs. There’s some real interesting complexity to this, though.

1. For most purposes, the manager is the primary face of the entire company to that employee. Even for things that the manager isn’t really responsible for, he still is given the accountability and blame by the employee – because that’s an actual person, rather than a vague collection of people elsewhere on the org chart.

2. This is a power relationship, so the employee feels at the mercy of the manager’s decisions. And it’s mostly true, even though we also realize that the employee is probably the one delivering more actual value to the customer and the company. But this is the nature of hierarchies.

3. In our current culture, we like to blame power figures rather than take responsibility ourselves. So employees often fall in the trap of waiting for managers’ decisions rather than taking direct ownership.

Having been both a manager and employee for many years, and now as a business coach, it’s real intriguing to puzzle through these kinds of situations. It’s not just a simple matter of telling managers to be nicer to their employees. Some very nice companies cratered when they fell behind on their ability to compete – after all, it’s the customer’s money that funds all the great niceness.

Great article, Alaister. Thanks.

One issue is the idea that you “manage” people. You lead people, you manage “stuff”.

This is a great read. Employee moral is ultimately leads to the highest quality. All very good points about what to avoid in a team setting. Gotta keep things on the up and up!

Great article and concrete points. This bit, “…all the managers sit around a conference table trying to address employee attrition, developing strategies for employee retention” is so true and begs the question about how a company discovers toxic managers that prohibit positive growth within an organization.

I’d agree with most of this, but stopping at your immediate manager is shortchanging the equation. Quite often your manager is emulating his manager, who is emulating his manager, who is emulating his manager, all the way to the top. Don’t put all the blame on your boss. If his boss doesn’t give a shit then the apathy will flow downhill straight into your tiny, windowless office. I would say that employees don’t leave their immediate manager as often as they leave the system that supports their immediate manager. At least that’s what I’ve experienced.

Very good and interesting article and I couldn’t agree more. Left a company a few years ago for that very reason. I find it very hard to tell this in job interviews though. When asked why I left the company I have to make up a story – instead of telling the real reason. Isn’t that strange. The manager had 4 people leave within less than 2 years – but neither of us dare to tell that we had a really bad manager and who was the main reason as to why we left the company – in a job interview. The manager is not the only one to blame here, her managers knows she has issues with most people around – and they don’t do anything. I am wondering what success a company could have – if really facing the issue of having bad managers. I am convinced that in most cases it is not unknown to upper management.

This article just hits the spot! More and more companies are following compromise agreements to get rid of people who don’t get on with Managers. I am so sorry to see organisations dying a death because of irritant egoistic managers who get the cream of talent out. It’s a jungle out there and we need to watch our backs at all times!

Loved the article. great points. and I totally agree on this.

This is a super article

It’s a simple truth, universally understood, seldom acknowledge coz it takes a lot of grit to say, I wronged my own team member.

The big question is why do “accomplished individuals”, at least is as evident by their position in the hierarchy indicates so, fall prey to insecurities of their mind. Bringing up a junior team member, honing their potential to perform better and taking pride in their successes gets eclipsed by the trivial fears of a weak self concept.

Simple remedy for a basic malady. Along with position comes responsibility and people are part of it. It’s important for a leader to be sensitive to the fact that your people will look up to you, at least for the virtue of the position you hold. Don’t cut a sorry figure by being petty.

You will be accepted as a ‘Senior’ and a manager only if your people can idolise you, and your behaviour does not disgust them.

This post is so relevant. I would probably be in one of the first organisations I ever worked for if my boss had showed they valued me, my work, intelligence, qualifications, had believed in me and most of all , treated me with respect. In hindsight I have left over 5 different positions because my boss didn’t respect my dignity. Sad to say but if I could abolish two things in this world it would be office politics and bad management. People never reach their full potential with arrogant bosses who often don’t even realise that with their egos and often silly power games, they are playing with workers’ lives.

Hmmmm – a typical reaction when quitting is to blame the manager. After all, it’s the easy option. It’s much easier than being an adult and taking the responsibility to manage the relationship with your manager. The attitude seems to be – “I don’t like my manager so that’s THEIR fault”. If you are disgruntled with your manager, why not ask YOURSELF why you don’t get on with them and take a look at what YOU might be able to do differently. “I don’t get on with my manager” seems to be used as an umbrella excuse when an employee finds that not everything goes their way. Missed your quota?… Oh the manager set it wrong! Poor performance rating?…Oh my manager doesn’t like me! Missed out on a pay rise?… Well it must be that pesky manager, and nothing to do with me, after all I am a perfect employee. The fact is, it’s not the job of a manager to make life a bed of roses for you!

I have witnessed plenty of employees having issues with their managers, but the best and most successful employees, (the ones who make a positive difference and we want to keep) are the ones who take ownership and responsibility for their own life / career and manage their manager appropriately. The company I work for has never been worse off for anyone leaving as a result of a difference of opinion with a manager, and experience suggests they will be using the same tired excuse when they quit their next job.