“You’re not going to believe what my manager did yesterday …” We’ve all been on both sides of workplace stories that started like this. While humor makes for a decent coping mechanism, bad management should be taken a lot more seriously.
A good manager is responsible for supporting employees and peers and setting the tone for the workday and overall environment. Here are 4 things a manager who knows what true management is all about never do.
A Good Manager is Never Passive-Aggressive
Passive-aggressive behavior coming from a manager comes from a build-up of either avoiding conflict only to be upset about them later or a feeling of threat in having their authority undermined. This; however, always leads to more serious long-term problems in the workplace because a manager who behaves as such is always hard to work with, as they create tension and mistrust among employees.
In a healthy workplace, employees should always be able to approach their managers without worrying about their reactions. Facing conflicts head-on doesn’t have to mean being a confrontational person it means that it’s an opportunity for developing conflict-resolution skills.
Never Micro-Manages
Micromanagement is one of the most famous traits of bad bosses.
This can be translated by always looking over employees’ shoulders, calling out every minor mistake, dictating the exact way tasks should be not, and never allowing each employee to work in the way they see fit to achieve the same result. A good manager would always allow their team to bring new ideas and improve processes in the workplace because they are flexible enough to create a safe space for them to bloom. No anxiety, no tension.
In fact, micromanagement will often lead to employees feeling insecure about their job performance and overall out of control. It’s one thing to have high standards and expectations for how things should be executed, but it’s a good manager’s job to communicate this to their team and know when and how to make corrections, always leaving room for errors and improvements.
Never Takes Credit for Others’ Work
Unnecessary and hierarchical, and a silly showoff of the level of seniority, taking credit for other people’s ideas is never okay. It can range from a manager copy/pasting your work and never crediting you, keeping it safe and vague, to presenting a whole concept and claiming it as their own. Coming from certain insecurities, a bad manager will feel that if they behave as such, they are better read and taken seriously.
For employees who end up looking at this inconvenience in a glass-half-full type of manner, they’ll settle for the idea that: “oh my idea is good enough to demonstrate that the idea has management backing“, without speaking of the matter or standing up for themselves.
A Good Manager is Never a Mr/Mrs. Know-it-all
Managers who pretend to know everything and are not flexible enough to improve themselves from their experience or learn new ways and processes will never grow, ultimately leading later on to plenty of management and organizational problems as they’ll lock their teams up from growing themselves: no accountability, no challenge, which can be both career and business limiting.
The vibe such managers give off is very familiar with “Well if I were you, I would have done it differently,” or “Well, it only took me 5 minutes”. They are unable to spot whether the information is limited or outdated, always comparing themselves to others, while they should be only comparing themselves to “themselves” in the hopes of learning more and improving. And good managers keep learning… Great managers know where to start.
EMLV’s Master in Management
This two-year Master in Management, fully taught in English, provides an opportunity to study in the heart of Paris’s business district.
This Grande Ecole programme will give you both a practical and a theoretical approach thanks to diverse majors:
- Corporate Finance
- Audit and Control
- Digital Marketing Strategy
- International Business
- Creative & Cultural Industries Management
- Marketing Innovation and Distribution
Thanks to its close proximity to major international companies (HSBC, Microsoft, Natixis, Oracle, Orange, PWC, Renault, Ubisoft, Valeo, Accenture, BNP Paribas, Rakuten), EMLV students will learn the fundamentals of business management and will develop the technical and personal skills sought by employers. Students of the MiM will have access to our careers department and benefit from careers development seminars and on-campus job fairs.
The MiM (Grande Ecole Programme) is geared towards fresh graduates and young professionals wishing to enhance their careers in business and looking for the right tools and modules to grow their soft and transferrable skills to better work solo and in teams.
If you want to become an unforgettable manager who never stops growing, then join our programme.