Effective management of bosses requires you to know yourself and your boss so that you can consciously work with him for mutual benefits and to achieve the bottom lines of your company. Your relationship with your boss is of paramount importance to your career growth as your boss has the power of rewards and punishments. Power is might, and might is always ‘right’. “Right” can become “wrong” and “wrong” can become “right”, “black” can become “white” and “white” can become “black,” it is up to the person who has the might to decide what is right or wrong and what is black or white. As the saying goes, “your boss is always ‘right’, if you think you are ‘right’ and the boss ‘wrong’, the first rule stands.
You can be a star performer in the eyes of others but in the eyes of your boss, he perceives you as a problem employee. His perception about you depends on your relationship with him. If you have a sour relationship with your boss, no matter how hard you work, he will be blind to your effort and good performance. You can be very frustrated and unhappy affecting your attitude towards work. It is vital to know that your behavior affects your boss’s behavior. Likewise, your boss’s behavior affects your behavior. Both of you are trapped in the behavioral loop each influencing the other.
Kyko personality profile can free you from entrapping yourself in this behavioral loop. Knowing your boss’s kyko personality profile is vital to your career success.
The first thing you need to do is to use the kyko personality instrument to web yourself and your boss kyko personality profile. From the kyko personality profile compatibility analysis, you will understand your relationship with your boss. You will know how to align the dimensions of your personality profile with the dimensions of your boss’s kyko personality profile to get into his good book.
Incidentally, your boss’s kyko personality profile will help you to identify what types of manager your boss is.
Boss with
- High Egocentric self – Authoritative Manager
- High Sociocentric self – People oriented manager
- High Subjugate self – Bureaucratic manager
- High Self Actualizing self – Entrepreneurial manager
- High Manipulative self – Politician
You boss management style is the combination of the above.
Authoritative Manager
Your boss wants power and tends to use authority to get things done. He is rank conscious and demand respect from his subordinates. He is highly competitive and wants to show others that he is the best.
Your boss is an achiever. He demands high standards of work from you and tends to bulldoze his way to meet his expectations.
He is domineering and decisive in meetings. He does more talking than listening and plays an active and dominant role in discussing issues.
Your boss is aggressive in asserting and defending his ideas and expects others to accept them.
He is motivated when others challenge him and is determined to win in any situations.
Your boss believes his ideas are always “right”. In disagreements and conflicts, he tends to shoot down others’ ideas.
He expects fast work and will not hesitate to confront marginal and problem employees to shape up or face adverse consequences.
Your boss is hot-tempered. When provoke he expresses his feelings of anger visibly.
He is a driver. He prefers to lead rather than follow by using all his power to mobilize his resources to achieve his mission and goal.
When you web the kyko-personality profile of an authoritative Manager you will find that the Egocentric and the Self Actualizing dimensions are dominant in the core personality profile. Below are traits and attributes of an Ego-Self-Actualizing boss (Authoritative Manager)
- Highly assertive
- Task-oriented
- Direct in their speech
- Competitive
- Ability to get things done independently
- Decisive and pragmatic
- Efficient
- Pushy
- Exercise overbearing control
- Insist that things be done his way immediately
- Prefers to use autocratic and authoritarian style
- Tells the subordinates of his expectations and expects them to achieve what he wants
- Pushes self and others for results
- Demands high standards of work
- Instills a sense of urgency in getting the job done
- Sets challenging targets and expects others to achieve them
- Expect fast and quality work from his subordinates
- Have high expectation of his department
- Demand others to reduce costs and wastage
- Demand optimum use of resources
- Pressurize problem employees to produce quality work
People-Oriented Manager
Your boss shows care and concern for his subordinates’ needs and problems and will do his part, within his authority, to assist them in whatever way he could.
He believes in teamwork and expects his subordinates to work as a team, cooperating, supporting, helping and sharing resources towards achieving the organization’s goals.
Your boss believes in people development and training and will help his subordinates to develop their potentials.
He is empathetic and sensitive to their feelings and will hesitate to take disciplinary measures against problem employees.
He is not firm when dealing with undisciplined employees and find it difficult to tell them off, or to pull up their socks. Your boss tries to avoid offending others.
Your boss is approachable and maintains an open door policy for discussion and interaction.
He tends to mix around with his subordinates, sharing his experiences and work related issues with them.
He is likeable and believes that it is people who get the organization moving.
When you web the kyko-personality profile of a People-Oriented Manager you will find that the Sociocentric and the Self Actualizing dimensions are dominant in the core personality profile. Below are traits and attributes of an Socio-Self-Actualizing boss (People Oriented Manager)
- Prefer to use participative style to address and resolve issues and problems
- Appreciates good work done
- Promotes a sense of belonging
- Emphasizes the importance of job satisfaction
- Helps employees solves work problems
- Easily accessible and approachable
- Implements employees’ good ideas
- Help problem employees to self actualize
- Believes working in teams can achieve wonders
Bureaucratic Manager
Your boss is a bureaucrat and believes that his subordinates’ behavior must be governed by rules and regulations.
He expects his subordinates to be disciplined, obey instructions and follow policies, rules and regulations in getting their jobs done.
Your boss wants to be safe. When confronted with problems and issues, he is slow and cautious in making decision as he will refer to the management directives, policies and procedures.
He is strict and serious with his work and expects his subordinates to do the same.
Your boss feels uncomfortable with rowdy employees who are disorganized and who tend to do things their way.
He is meticulous and ensures that his subordinates produce quality work by checking all details and amending their work to ensure that it is error free and that everything is done in the proper manner.
He wants to ensure that his department is run smoothly and will feel uncomfortable when someone in his team rocks the boat.
Your boss wants certainties in discharging your duties and responsibilities. He plans, organizes, monitors and supervises his subordinates’ work closely to ensure that everything is done in accordance with the book, and at the right time and in the right place.
Your boss is uncomfortable with risky propositions. When his subordinates give him suggestions, he wants precedents, facts and figures and proof that that things will work.
He is a good administrator as he expects his subordinates to follow the proper channels and operational procedures.
Your boss is good at controlling resources and ensures that they are used to meet organization’s objectives and goals.
When you web the kyko-personality profile of a Bureaucratic Manager you will find that the Subjugate and the Self Actualizing dimensions are dominant in the core personality profile. Below are some traits and attributes of a Subjugate-Self-Actualizing boss (Bureaucratic Manager)
- Strict and serious
- Disciplinarian
- Manage people by the book
- Expect obedience to carry out instructions
- Follow formal channels
- Protocol
- No-nonsense type
- Follow directives
- Panic under crisis
- Expects everything is in place
- Low tolerance for mistakes and defects
- Tells his subordinates of his expectations and listen to ensure that they understood him
- Ensure certain standards of work need to be achieve within a specific time frame
- Clarify tasks to ensure the smooth implementation of a job.
- Demand targets to be achieve within specific time period
Entrepreneurial manager.
Your boss looks at his department as a business entity and would look at the bottom line in getting things done.
He uses his reasoning and logic to arrive at a decision and would tend to look at bottom lines before making a commitment.
Your boss has high growth needs and would go for self-improvement in order to keep abreast of world events and the business environment.
He is fair and will give due recognition to those who deserve it.
Your boss is an ideas generator. He encourages ideas and suggestions from his subordinates, recognizes good ideas and will make use of them to get things done.
He is considerate when dealing with deviant subordinates and will assist them to self-actualize. He will try his best to help them and will only take disciplinary action as a last resort to correct their deviant behavior.
Your boss is committed, enjoys working, and is diligent and will not mind working till the wee hours of the night to complete your job.
Politician
Your boss believes that to survive, people, influence, and manipulations make the world moving around.
He is complex and unpredictable, like a chameleon that changes its color to adapt to the situation.
He can be an angel in front of those who have power over him or shows his true colors to those who are dependent on him and under his control.
Your boss is good at influencing and using people. He can use others to achieve common interests or abuses others at their expense.
Your boss is good at manipulating relationship, situations and circumstances. He can manipulate them either for a win-win situation or win-lose situation.
He can motivate his subordinates to work hard and recognize them for doing a fine, good job or forces them to work hard and claim their merits.
Your boss can work into the good book of his superiors and get recognition and reward for hard work or do the minimum.
He can give clear instructions and ensures that his subordinates understood them or deliberately gives wrong instructions and blame them for disobeying him.
He can filter and censor information from the top and communicate down those necessarily to get the job done or withholds vital information from unfavorable subordinates with intent to punish.
Your boss can deliberately influence a marginal subordinate and tactfully help him to actualize or deliberately punishes him by assigning a difficult and unimportant job and let him make a mess of it.
He can account for his mistakes and wrangles himself out of a difficult situation or sweep them underneath the carpet.
Your boss can free himself from doing simple, routine and unimportant work by delegating them to his subordinates and spend time on important and innovative work or uses the free time to do his own business.
He can go round the rules and regulations to get things done or use the loopholes of the rules to cheat or to avoid work.
Your boss can persuade salespersons and vendors to give him the best quotations or collaborates with them to inflate the quotations of the purchase and take a cut from it
He can influence others to find simpler and more efficient ways to do your work or idles around and play hides and seek with his superiors
Your boss can give hints until his ideas become his subordinates’ ideas or he can get his subordinates to voice their ideas and give them a false sense of participation, to gain support.
He can also make a person look good or bad in front of others. He can mobilize support from others to achieve organizational goals or to sabotage them.
There are two types of politicians – the positive manipulator (High SA + Positive M) and the negative manipulator (High SA + Negative M). The positive manipulator uses people, issues, and opportunities for a win-win situation. The negative manipulator, on the contrary, goes for a win-lose situation. The politician uses his intellect to manage others. In reality, he has a choice either to go for a win-win or a win-lose situation.
Bosses without he self-actualizing dimension in the core profile, generally are not concern with results and the bottom lines. Below are examples of these types of bosses
- Ego-Sociocentric Boss
- emotionally expressive
- Tend to play favoritism
- Those who know how to work into his good book are favored
- Those who are against him probably will get stress and anxieties
- Divide and rule
- Mix freely with his supporters and expect them to be loyal and supportive
- Use his team to fight his opponents
- Subordinates split into two groups
- Conflicts arising from the split
Ego-Low-Sociocentric Boss
- Insensitive to the feeling of their subordinates
- focusing on other matters more than on employees.
- Threatens and intimidates
- Hot-tempered when provoked
- Unlikely to appreciate others good work
- Selective socialization with people of higher rank
Ego-Subjugate Boss
- Demand strict adherence to rules and regulations
- Give detailed directions and demand subordinates to follow strictly
- Intolerant of rule-breakers and deviant subordinates
- Pressurize subordinates to be submissive and obedient
- Low level of tolerance for mistakes and defects
- Take pride in creating systems for the company
- Push subordinates to put things right when things go wrong
- Like people to praise his administrative abilities
Ego-Low Subjugate Boss
- Difficult to accept criticisms
- Do first and think later
- Can become upset when controlled by rules and regulations
- Like freedom to push his way around
- Get angry when reminded to do something
- Easily provoked when others points out his messiness
Ego-Low-Self-Actualizing Boss
- Foolish pride
- Irrational when others put him down
- Try to project his image without putting in his effort
- Demand others to do and die and not to ask why
- Defensive when reprimanded by his superiors
- Can punish those who do not know how to fan his ego
- Hard to accept good ideas from others
- Wants to do things his way even other ways are better in getting results.
Ego-manipulative boss
- Use others to project his image
- Tends to claim credits from his subordinate’s work
- Can blow issues out of proportions
- Know how to twist and turn issues to his favor
- Can be revengeful if other bruise his pride
- Likes to make people look bad in front of others
- Know how to reward good subordinates and punish problem ones
Ego-low manipulative boss
- Like others to fan his ego
- Believe he is always right
- Can be easily provoked when others put him down
- Like to project his self-image
- Like to win in an argument
- Difficult to change his mind
Tips on managing boss
Below are some tips on how to manage boss with:
High Egocentric self
- Fan his ego appropriately
- Do not argue with him
- Talk up to him
- Meet his demands speedily
- Listen more than you talk
- Put him in the limelight
- Give your credit to him
- Defend him when others put him down
- Serve him humbly
- Treat him like your master
- Praise him for his good work
High Sociocentric self
- Work your way into his inner circle and win his heart
- Be a team player
- Show him that you care for his well beings
- Give him full assistance and support
- Be sensitive to his feelings
- Share his interests
- Celebrates his special occasions
- Keep him company when he requests for it
- Show that you can work well with others
- Do not betray his trust
- Be friendly and courteous
- Share your personal and work related problems with him
High Subjugate Self
- Satisfy his safety needs
- Do your paperwork methodically and ensure it is error free
- Obey his instructions strictly
- Be discipline and keep to the rules and regulations
- Organize yourself well and keep your work-station neat and tidy
- Provide him with progressive report of your work
- Hand your work on time
- Do not rock the boat
- Give proposal back up with evidences of success
- Do not mess up his work
- Ensure everything is run smoothly
High Self Actualizing Self
- Be a star performer and produce results for him
- Be effective and efficient in carrying out your duties and responsibilities
- Produce quality work
- Show willingness to learn from others
- Show that you are creative and innovative
- Keep him inform of what is going around
- Be able to cut cost and reduce wastage
- Do not be a chameleon
- Be goal and result-oriented
- Share your good ideas with him
- Be fair in your dealings with others
High Manipulative Self
You have to be very observant to satisfy his needs as it arises. You will find great satisfaction if you work under a positive manipulate boss. However, you will suffer psychological pains, such as stress, anxieties and fear under a negative manipulative boss.
Below are some tips on managing negative manipulative boss.
- Protect yourself from being used and abused
- Follow strictly procedures, rules and regulations
- Document your work
- Align yourself with the other dimensions of his kyko personality profile
- Be careful and cautious in your dealings with him
- Think thrice before making a commitment
- Do not be sway by emotions
- Do exercises or meditation to reduce your stress
- Pray hard
Case-study on Managing Boss
Major Lim, a diploma holder has been working in Mahata Construction S/B for 16 years and has risen to become a Human Resource Manager. He has been working well with his CEO until lately, in a corporate restructure exercise, Datuk Ling took over as CEO of Mahata.
Being people-oriented, Major Lim is quite popular with his colleagues and bosses. He is hardworking and responsible and usually goes home late. He takes pride in his work and gets a sense of achievement for his being able to run his department effectively.
Datuk Ling is aggressive and demanding. He expects his managers to follow his instructions strictly. He instills a sense of urgency among his managers to get the job done even if they have to work at odd hours. Datuk Ling is famous at waking up his managers at 3.00 a.m. to solve problems at the construction site. He is a loner and avoids being around with his down-lines unless it is on official matters. Datuk Ling is also good at loading his managers until they have no time to socialize.
The working atmosphere, once easy going and pleasant, soon become busy and tense. Several managers were unhappy and complain to Major Lim about their predicaments.
Major Lim raise this issue to his new CEO who took it quite unpleasantly and eventually chase him off from his room.
The working relationship between Major and Datuk Ling deteriorated and become tense and bitter. Major Lim feels frustrated and unhappy. He begins condemning his CEO’s style of management to his colleagues.
One day while in the midst of a meeting, a nasty remark from Major initiates Datuk Lim to yell at Major and accuses him of working like an office boy. Major Lim loses his cool and uses obscenity on Datuk. He tenders his resignation soon after that incident and was accepted.
- Draw the kyko personality profile of Major and Datuk Ling. Identify what types of managers both are.
- Do a profile compatibility analysis and explain the conflict and why the relationship between Major and Datuk Lim becomes sour?
- Do you agree with Major way of handling his boss? If yes, support your answer with rationales. If no, how would you manage Datuk Ling if you were in Major’s place?
- Do you support Datuk Ling for the way he treats Major? If yes, support your answer with rationales. If no, how would you handle Major if you were in Datuk Ling’s place?
- What critical lessons have you learned from this case?