Wednesday, November 16, 2005

What to do about bad bosses - right now?

I received an email from someone who has a terrible boss, and asked what we could do about it. Unfortunately, the way organizations are, change still has to be enforced from the top. Once the people at the top decide to go ahead with changing their organizations, it's only then that things can happen. Otherwise, we will have to use the traditional (and more expensive) route: revolution.

Revolution might sound like an inappropriate word to use in the context of the workplace, but this will be the only alternative - once there is a huge amount of pressure from the bottom (and I'm not talking blood pressure!) on senior management for change, only then will they feel pressurised to do something. So it's up to underlings (as Dilbert would say) to start creating that pressure. This doesn't have to be difficult - it could simply be introduced to workplace conversations - once this effect snowballs, things will start happening. So what can you do right now? Simply start talking about the issue. Not aggressively, not accusingly, but simply as a better way of doing things.

(Please email me your comments at cvdhruve@gmail.com)