Just six months after being elected as Israel’s first, and only, female prime minister, Golda Meir visited the White House in September 1969. There was renewed turmoil in the Middle East and there was no doubt that the visit was prompted by Israeli concerns about U.S. support.
Israel’s worries were not totally misplaced. Richard Nixon was just nine months into his presidency and had his hands full dealing with an intractable enemy in the Vietnam War. Moreover, he was not known for his enthusiasm for Israeli policies and politics.
It came as a surprise then, when in a press interview held upon her arrival, Meir described President Nixon as “an old friend of the Jewish people.”
Only Henry Kissinger, then national security adviser, seemed to recognize what Meir had done: She had given the American president a reputation to live up to. And, ultimately, he did.
In the workplace, we don’t have press conferences but we certainly have politics — at least in the broadest sense of individuals and groups with differing views and objectives, likes and dislikes, working together. Even a workplace with just two people has its own sort of politics.
Sometimes workplace supervisors and managers have behavior patterns, work habits and opinions that result in a disrupted and inefficient work force. Without a doubt, the boss’s bad behavior can make your life miserable, and hurt the business, too.
When the boss is being a real jerk, one way to deal with this is to give him or her a positive reputation to live up to.
If, for example, a job has to be redone because the boss changed his mind about a key element, don’t join the chorus of critics. Instead, offer your opinion to your co-workers that, “He wouldn’t launch a job without thinking it through. Something, some part of the picture, must have changed.”
That kind of stated opinion changes things. Instead of the grumbling of workers, which the boss has come to expect and ignore, it gives the boss a reputation to meet. Even if he had launched the job without thinking it through, he will be less likely to do it again. It is human nature: If we believe that others have a favorable opinion of our capabilities, our natural inclination is to try to live up to it.
Sometimes it is possible to supplement the image with other good characteristics that you wish he had. Often, though, the initial shift in behavior is enough to set off a series of positive changes.
In almost all cases of habitual jerklike behavior in bosses, we find confusion in their minds as to what is expected of them. Good bosses tend to have a grasp of what to do and how to organize the resources to do it. More importantly, they know what they have to do to make that happen.
What bad bosses seem to have in common is their detachment; they seem to have no idea that they are bad bosses. And they never seem to make the connection between their behavior and achieving positive results.
We don’t know what causes this detachment in bad bosses, but there is reason to suspect that it relates to the fundamentals of human behavior. They lack a model, a set of expectations for themselves that would provide a scorecard, something to measure themselves by. By creating a positive self-image for a boss, we can reshape his or her behavior so that it is more effective in the workplace and, ultimately, more satisfying for everyone.
One of the better things about reshaping a boss’s self-image is that there is almost no risk to it. If you are unhappy in your job because of your boss, complaining about his shortcomings — to co-workers, to him or her or to bosses higher up the food chain — is not likely to produce happy results for you. On the other hand there are no documented cases of a worker being disciplined for saying positive things about the boss.
There is a difference between creating a positive self-image for someone and making excuses for their behavior. Outside the workplace, in families and personal relationships, these excuses are often the product of love, affection and wishful thinking. By contrast, creating a positive reputation for a workplace manager constructs a standard of behavior and a set of expectations to be met.
We do have to remember that it isn’t easy to get people to change, and some people are highly resistant to the process. But if your boss is making you miserable and ruining the efficiency of the business, it’s worth a try.
James McCusker is a Bothell economist, educator and consultant. He also writes a monthly column for the Snohomish County Business Journal.
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