Real Leaders Don't Boss (9 page)

Behavior of managers:
A
leader
prohibits demeaning, disrespectful, or verbally abusive behavior from his or her managers. A
boss
ignores that kind of behavior and may exhibit it himself or herself.

Respecting the personal life of an employee:
A
leader
recognizes that employees enjoy a private and personal life outside of the business and appreciates the need to maintain a work/life balance for well-being and productivity. A
boss
overloads his team with many tasks and impossible due dates, then micromanages them.

Getting the job done:
A
leader
works to remove obstacles for his or her employees, provides the
necessary resources, and expedites processes to make it easier for others to accomplish their jobs. A
boss
creates roadblocks that get in the way of the job, lead to pointless extra work, and create unnecessary frustration.

The Ugly American
by William J. Lederer and Eugene Burdick (W.W. Norton, 1999), originally published in 1958, was required high school reading when I was in school. It describes a character who has little sensitivity toward or interest in others. Little did I realize at the time that later in the workplace I would meet head-on the ugly American's cousin, the “ugly executive.” A leader's primary responsibility is to articulate a vision and establish a set of strategies that unleashes the creativity, freedom, and individual potential of the workforce. The behavior of the “ugly executive” drains an organization of critically needed energy, strength, creativity, passion, and loyalty, and threatens essential relationships with key constituencies.

Who are these ugly executives we all have likely encountered at one time or another? In many cases their egomaniacal actions drag their companies down with them. Here are a few of the most offensive traits and the behaviors associated with the ugly executive:

Lying.
An organization's CEO tells one of his managers that her employment contract for the new fiscal year is somewhere on his desk, but he isn't exactly sure where it is specifically. Time passes and no contract materializes, so the manager asks again about her contract. This time, the CEO snaps at her,
“Well, you're getting paid, aren't you?” The manager asks the HR department chief about the contract, and she honestly tells the manager that the president has not requested they draft a contract for her.

Egotism.
The leader of the C-suite directs her executive assistant to call the hotel where she plans to stay on an upcoming business trip and to secure the largest or most impressive suite of rooms. If it is not up to her standards in size or opulence, she will demand another hotel.

Arrogance.
Several company employees are on a commercial flight or company plane, and the executive among them sits apart from the others and ignores them for the duration of the flight.

Tyranny.
At the last minute, the boss decides to have lunch in his office and commands an administrative assistant to go outside the building to get his meal. After he is finished eating, he chastises the assistant for the “poor quality” of the meal as he shoves the food tray away in a demeaning manner.

Romantic liaison.
One CEO wanted to hire a young woman he was sleeping with (he was married at the time). Her credentials didn't match the criteria for any vacant jobs at the company, so he created a new executive position by combining elements from the duties of other vice presidents. The young woman was unable to do the work, so the vice presidents got their assignments back. But the woman remained on the payroll as “an executive without portfolio.”

Racism and/or sexism.
The company chairman periodically invites his vice presidents, all of whom
are white males, to his favorite restaurant for lunch, and proceeds to rattle off a string of racist and/or sexist jokes. The company's ethnic make-up—as well as that of the managers—reflects the CEO's biased attitudes, too.

As a teen during summers spent working at manual labor in the peach orchards throughout Yuba and Sutter counties in California, I watched how hard others worked alongside me, and that reinforced the importance of a strong work ethic. One or two situations also taught me that bullies have no place in any workplace. However, that does not mean they do not exist.

As a young adult, I worked as a fruit inspector for the California Department of Agriculture, checking the quality of the products farmers would bring to be inspected before being sold to the canneries. It was up to me—from all appearances a young kid—to reject rotten products or those of unacceptable quality. One day after I had rejected a particularly rotten truckload of peaches, a clearly irate—and intoxicated—rancher stormed up to me, obviously intent on bullying me into submission. He ripped his shirt off; the buttons flew into the air as he raised his fists to fight. Instead of fighting, though, I attempted to reason with him. Eventually I told him that if he did not want to accept my ruling on his load of fruit—which likely represented an important portion of his income—I would be happy to call in the district supervisor for a second opinion. I did, and my supervisor rejected the fruit even more resoundingly than I had. The dejected farmer backed down, drove off, and probably dumped his fruit that no doubt he knew was unacceptable.