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By Kaja Whitehouse Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Being an abrasive boss can hurt your career.
The focus on management style has heightened in recent weeks amid scrutiny of John Bolton, President Bush's nominee for United Nations ambassador. Detractors have described him as a "quintessential kiss-up, kick-down sort of guy" who berated underlings who challenged him. Meanwhile, supporters praise his style as a sign of his willingness to get things done without worrying too much about what other people think.
The debate in the Senate also echoes throughout the corporate world. Just as legislators are arguing whether Bolton's management style will have an impact on his effectiveness, so, too, are employers questioning whether style can hurt performance.
The answer: Bully management tactics are increasingly frowned upon as short-term motivators and a potential liability, according to executive recruiters and management specialists.
No doubt, results still carry tremendous sway over an employer's willingness to look the other way, said Jeff Hawn, managing partner of the Columbus, Ohio,office of job-search firm Princeton Search Group. If you're a mediocre performer, being a jerk will cost you the job. On the other hand, "if you're a bully boss and shareholder value is up 15% year after year," employers are going to turn a blind eye, he added.
Yet, increasingly, employers are also growing wary of bully bosses no matter how well they perform, said Dave Opton, CEO of ExecuNet, an executive-search firm in Norwalk, Conn. The concern is that bad bossing can hurt long-term performance in part because it pushes away valuable employees. Plus, the first to go are always the top performers who can easily find work elsewhere, said Opton.
"People don't leave companies, they leave managers," Opton said. "Fear is a great motivator. That doesn't mean it's a long-term motivator."
The impact interpersonal skills can have on leadership ability has also been stressed in popular business books, like "Good to Great" and "Emotional Intelligence."
"Good to Great" even throws water on the popular belief that difficult and egotistical leaders are effective. Companies show "a leap in performance under a talented yet egocentric leader, only to decline in years later," according to the book, which pointed to Chrysler under Lee Iacocca and Scott Paper under "Chainsaw" Al Dunlap. Controversial, attention-grabbing leaders care more about themselves than the company, the book argues. Modest, cooperative leaders are more likely to keep a company growing long-term, it says.
Also, companies are becoming better at researching management styles when they look for a new hire, job recruiters said. Concerned employers will conduct extensive background checks, often looking to interview random employees in addition to the standard set of supportive peers and supervisors, they said.
The scrutiny grows tougher as you climb the corporate ladder, said Jeff Kaye, CEO of Kaye/Bassman International, an executive search firm in Dallas. "The higher level the person, the more digging that will be done," including personality tests, behavioral profiles and meeting with psychologists, he said. Even if management style isn't as important as performance for a particular employer, bad bossing can work against you when you compete with other high performers who have the advantage of knowing how to work on a team, said Kaye.
Hopefully, managers will try to aim for both performance and the ability to work on a team, said Hawn. "A superstar that's incredibly likable and cares about the quality of life of their people, that's what everybody wants to see," he said.
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Abrasive Bosses
May 17, 2005
By Kaja Whitehouse Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Being an abrasive boss can hurt your career.
The focus on management style has heightened in recent weeks amid scrutiny of John Bolton, President Bush's nominee for United Nations ambassador. Detractors have described him as a "quintessential kiss-up, kick-down sort of guy" who berated underlings who challenged him. Meanwhile, supporters praise his style as a sign of his willingness to get things done without worrying too much about what other people think.
The debate in the Senate also echoes throughout the corporate world. Just as legislators are arguing whether Bolton's management style will have an impact on his effectiveness, so, too, are employers questioning whether style can hurt performance.
The answer: Bully management tactics are increasingly frowned upon as short-term motivators and a potential liability, according to executive recruiters and management specialists.
No doubt, results still carry tremendous sway over an employer's willingness to look the other way, said Jeff Hawn, managing partner of the Columbus, Ohio,office of job-search firm Princeton Search Group. If you're a mediocre performer, being a jerk will cost you the job. On the other hand, "if you're a bully boss and shareholder value is up 15% year after year," employers are going to turn a blind eye, he added.
Yet, increasingly, employers are also growing wary of bully bosses no matter how well they perform, said Dave Opton, CEO of ExecuNet, an executive-search firm in Norwalk, Conn. The concern is that bad bossing can hurt long-term performance in part because it pushes away valuable employees. Plus, the first to go are always the top performers who can easily find work elsewhere, said Opton.
"People don't leave companies, they leave managers," Opton said. "Fear is a great motivator. That doesn't mean it's a long-term motivator."
The impact interpersonal skills can have on leadership ability has also been stressed in popular business books, like "Good to Great" and "Emotional Intelligence."
"Good to Great" even throws water on the popular belief that difficult and egotistical leaders are effective. Companies show "a leap in performance under a talented yet egocentric leader, only to decline in years later," according to the book, which pointed to Chrysler under Lee Iacocca and Scott Paper under "Chainsaw" Al Dunlap. Controversial, attention-grabbing leaders care more about themselves than the company, the book argues. Modest, cooperative leaders are more likely to keep a company growing long-term, it says.
Also, companies are becoming better at researching management styles when they look for a new hire, job recruiters said. Concerned employers will conduct extensive background checks, often looking to interview random employees in addition to the standard set of supportive peers and supervisors, they said.
The scrutiny grows tougher as you climb the corporate ladder, said Jeff Kaye, CEO of Kaye/Bassman International, an executive search firm in Dallas. "The higher level the person, the more digging that will be done," including personality tests, behavioral profiles and meeting with psychologists, he said. Even if management style isn't as important as performance for a particular employer, bad bossing can work against you when you compete with other high performers who have the advantage of knowing how to work on a team, said Kaye.
Hopefully, managers will try to aim for both performance and the ability to work on a team, said Hawn. "A superstar that's incredibly likable and cares about the quality of life of their people, that's what everybody wants to see," he said.
Executive Search | Recruitment Process Outsourcing | Contract Staffing | College Recruiting | Site Map
This site is optimized for 1024x768 resolution and Internet Explorer.
Copyright © 2010 PrincetonOne