Executive LEADERSHIP: Do You Care Enough to Help End Workplace Bullying?

#QualityLeadership #FreeThinking #EOT #PCC #EffectiveLeadership #CARE #GiveADamn

Workplace bully [ bad boss ] for this context: Someone in a position of power who makes life in workplace unbearable, difficult for a person to proficiently perform their job responsibilities.

What are you doing to end workplace bullying [ bad bosses trend ]?

• What are the downstream impacts of workplace bullying [bad bosses] in your organization?
• How much healthier would your organization’s workplace and culture be if workplace bullying [vicious cycle of bad bosses] was truly addressed?
• How much more money would your organization make if bully [bad] bosses did not exist?

Ironically, as kids we are encouraged to tell someone, to speak out, to stand up for ourselves when dealing with bullies; but as adults we are feared into saying nothing and doing nothing when we are faced with bully [ bad ] bosses because we have bills to pay or we work in an at-will-state.

Young people get support to ensure that their bully is handled and held accountable, while adults don’t.

Adults are on their own. Adults are expected to take it and deal with workplace bullying [ bad bosses ]. Adults quit their bully [ bad ] bosses.

How can executives find workplace bullying [ bad bosses ] acceptable?

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Here’s my personal story dealing with workplace bullying, which I also illuminated in the fictional story line of one of my self-refinement books.

I worked for a bully [ bad ] boss who verbally excoriated me, yelling, in front of her boss that I thought I was smarter than everyone and didn’t need anyone – by everyone and anyone she meant her. All that venomous hostility just because I had expressed serious interest in transitioning into a management role; and I had automated a process that she had been spending countless hours doing manually. I just wanted a fair opportunity to earn a leadership role.

Hmm . . . Now that I think about it, I guess I brought workplace bullying upon myself by demonstrating my confidence – yeah, not. When she asked me if I could do her job, I simply responded, “Yes.”

Her insecurities and jealousy were her growth opportunities to personally address, instead of creating a hostile working environment for me and a few other confident teammates whose talents were being underutilized, and lying on our performance review. She even told a fellow teammate in so many words ‘I’m your boss. I can see to it that you don’t have a job’.

The boldness of my former bully boss was no shock.

My former bully [ bad ] boss displayed poor leadership skills and sub-ignorance (a person a who does not seek to understand or know). In our first team meeting when three of us newly joined her team, she introduced herself (let’s call her Jan) in the deepest southern accent you can imagine: “My name is Jan. I’ve lived in Georgia all my life. I ain’t never been outside the country. I don’t wanna go outside the country. I drive a pick-up truck and her name is Sharky.” Hmm . . . Jan had been promoted twice by the same person. Jan’s boss had allowed non-sense in the department, mal-behavior from mistreatment of workers to racial slurs.Jan, my former bully bad ] boss, and her boss had been reported to human resources several times – nothing significant was ever done. Both of them still work in that same department.

Even when people know others are being bullied, no one wants to get involved or they’re careful about getting involved – they don’t want to lose their jobs. The VP [ who was also a colleague outside of work ] whom I had told about my corrupt department simply shook his head and said, “Mmm.”

My former bully boss is still in the same position in the same department. I know this because when I am contacted about jobs with that same company –different departments of course – and I give her name as “required” I never hear back from the hiring manager, even after getting to the last round of interviews.

I had left instead of taking a demotion. A friend on a different team within the department shared with me that her manager told their team: ‘Evette is a class act, given everything she’s been through’.

Contrast learning: My former bully boss and other ones I have encountered taught me the kind of boss I will never be.

Nonetheless, I’m good, working for one of the best quality leaders I’ve ever had. As a quality leader, I C.A.R.E. for each person I am responsible leading – I don’t do to them what I don’t want done to me.

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What’s your story with workplace bullying [ bad bosses ]?

Bullying of any type is never a good thing!

Everyone knows that you are either a part of the problem or a part of the solution.

Executives ask yourself: “Am I truly a part of the workplace bullying [ bad boss ] problem or solution?”

If you are a part of the solution, Thank you!

In all fairness, the most senior leadership cannot know everything that goes on in their organizations. And executive leaders should be able to trust other leaders in their organization to always do what is right, fair, and just.

However, it would be naïve for the senior most leadership in organizations to believe that every leader always does the right thing for each person s(he) is responsible for leading – that every person in a leadership role does not do to employees what they don’t want done to them.

ATTENTION CEOs and Executive Leadership teams: What is the first step you will take to address issues with workplace bullying [ bad bosses ] in your organization?

Oh, I found this workplace bullying article in Forbes after I wrote mine because some executives might need to be convinced that workplace bullying is real and could be happening in their organizations. Check it out!

Ultimately, a broader conversation about the misuse and abuse of power or positions of authority is necessary for real and sustainable change.

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