Month: February 2017

I’ve spoken to a few people recently who are considering leaving their job because of what they called ‘bad management’. In some cases that meant that their manager wasn’t giving them the opportunities they wanted, that the manager was a barrier to how they felt the team should work and wasn’t empowering the team, and that they weren’t clear on what the team was trying to achieve.

Managing a team is difficult. It takes a lot of extra time, effort, and skills that not every manager has had the opportunity to learn. It is undoubtedly the managers responsibility to improve their management skills, but I think the employee has some responsibility to.

Leaving your job because of bad management means you are always relying on someone else to make a success of your career. You are relying on your next job having good management, but what if it doesn’t. There are a lot more bad managers out there than good ones. Instead of giving someone else the power over you, take responsibility for your career, be clear with yourself about what you want to achieve, figure out how to be successful regardless of management, learn how to ‘manage-up’ and ‘manage-sideways’, make your own opportunities for career development, don’t allow someone to disempower you just because they are your manager.