4 Types of Bad Managers and How to Deal with Them

Summary: You won’t find confidence or consistency, traits found in good leaders, in these four types of managers.

The type of management you have running your company will directly reflect what kind of employees you have. In order to know how to fix a bad workplace environment, you need to understand where the problems are. There are four types of management styles that exhibit bad leadership qualities.

1. The Micromanager – We have all probably dealt with a manager like this. While they often mean well, they tend to check on things a little too much, undermining the confidence of their team.
2. The Mushroom – This manager doesn’t hesitate to toss things over the wall for their team to handle, never bothering to check in and then is surprised by the outcome. While being kept in the dark with just manure to work with is an ideal environment for mushrooms but not for team members.
3. The Savior – This manager neglects many of their responsibilities and then rushes in at the last minute to save the day. When there are no problems, they may create a one so that they can come to the rescue.
4. The Seagull – A seagull manager flies over everyone, crapping on them, stealing your lunch, and then flies away again. They do not communicate or do so very poorly with their team and show no appreciation of the efforts others put in.

Leadership qualities that you want include integrity, confidence, positive attitude, sense of humor, vision, inspiring, communication, and determination.

Communication: How can a leader effectively lead if they are not able to communicate with their team? Managers must be able to communicate the ideas they have inside their head to others.

Confidence: Confidence shows in many different ways but makes a huge impact on those around it. A leader with confidence will be able to lead a team towards their vision.

Determination: To get a team fully committed to their leader, they must trust that that leader is not going to give up.

Inspiring: Being able to find a way to inspire others towards a vision will get them motivated to reach the end goal.

Integrity: In order to be a leader that can be trusted, a leader must be consistent and truthful.

Positive Attitude: A leader that can see the glass half-full will be able to make many things possible.

Sense of Humor: There will be tough times so having a leader that is able to lighten the mood and pull the team through the darkness will help develop a team that does the same.

Vision: Having a direction, a point that they are leading others to, will help a leader be consistent.

If your management lacks these qualities and more closely matches the four types of bad managers, then you will have a problem. Studies show that employees leave their jobs because of management more than any other part of the workplace. Employees are more likely to put up with bad coworkers, lower pay, and less benefits if they have an amazing manager. Don’t let your company get caught in a downward spiral with your employees jumping ship because of a bad manager.

Train and educate your management to exhibit these characteristics. If a manager is unable or unwilling to be a better manager, then they need to go before you lose all the workforce.

What has been your experience with bad managers? Tell us about it in the comments below.

To learn more about how to build better leaders, read these articles:

• Want to Be a Great Leader? Learn to Listen
• Improving Engagement & Well-Being through Focused Leadership
• The Importance of Teamwork at Work: How to Be a Team Leader

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