The Bosshole® Chronicles
The Bosshole® Chronicles
You Might Be a Bosshole® IF: You Spy on Your People
Reading employee emails? Surprise visits to "catch" them working? Our new episode breaks down why these surveillance tactics reveal more about your leadership gaps than employee performance. Listen for better alternatives.
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That's right. It's time for another episode of "You Might Be a Bosshole If we're finding that this is becoming one of our more popular types of segments on The Bosshole Chronicles. So sit back and ask yourself the question am I spying on my direct reports and if so, could I be in the Bosshole Zone? Let's check it out. The Boss Hole Chronicles are brought to you by Real Good Ventures, the talent optimization firm, helping organizations diagnose their most critical people and execution issues with world-class analytics. Make sure to check out all the resources in the show notes and be sure to follow us and share your feedback. Enjoy today's episode.
Sara Best:Hi everybody, welcome back to "You Might Be a Boss Hole, If a special episode of the Boss Hole Chronicles. It's good to have you with us today. Here's my trusted partner and friend, John Broer, to tell us what is our subject matter for today.
John Broer:Well, Sara, this may seem hard to believe, but you might be a Bosshole if you are spying on your direct reports.
Sara Best:Spying on your direct reports.
John Broer:Spying on your direct reports and let me- there's a couple of different facets to this and I've heard, I've I have not personally experienced it. I know people that have. I've had managers tell me this and I just want to share it. I think if you are doing this, you are absolutely in the Boss hole Zone. Let me give you a quick example. There was an example just within the last few years and I know about this example a business owner and the company had about 60 to 70 people working there and there was a central office and then there were people working out in the field on operations and so forth, different projects and so forth.
John Broer:This business owner read everybody's emails. I mean, it was widely known and I don't think he kept it a secret, but he was reading everybody's emails and I couldn't believe it. And somebody who was working there I said well, doesn't that bother you? He said, well, obviously we know about it and it's having the desired intent. Nobody is doing anything personal on email. But I was thinking, wouldn't the owner of a company really be focused on bottom line and growing the business? And maybe his thought was well, if people are wasting time on personal emails, they're spending my money and that goes to the bottom line. But I thought that was crazy. But it was a successful business. But he was essentially spying on them and reading their emails. So I don't know, if you were there and you knew that, how would that strike you?
Sara Best:I would be frustrated. I worked for a company once and I got a piece of mail and it was delivered to me from HR and it was opened and it was actually a personal thank you note and I was told the policy is your mail is our mail. So maybe this guy had that same philosophy.
John Broer:Are you serious?
Sara Best:I'm totally serious, whoa, and it was unsettling. I didn't ever expect that, and I can imagine, if I worked in that company, I would definitely be censoring. I would not use my email for anything other than client transactions, et cetera. And I just want to stop for a minute, though, and say what would have an owner needing to do that world that he would feel it was necessary to do that.
John Broer:I don't know. I do know the business was a successful- I'm not going to say what kind of business it was. I know that they were successful. I know that they were growing. I don't know if there was a sense of paranoia or that. You know what I pay you to do this work and I don't want anybody doing personal stuff on company time.
Sara Best:Yeah.
John Broer:I mean generally, that's going to come out anyway. You're going to find out based on, you know, maybe poor performance or some issues. But I just thought, wow, that's a really interesting use of an owner's time reviewing everybody's email.
Sara Best:Yeah, not the highest and best use of an owner's time, if you ask me.
John Broer:I wouldn't think so. No, go ahead.
Sara Best:Well, I bet you have another example.
John Broer:I do. I actually have two that are kind of related and these actually came from managers, and I had a just because I spent so much time in the field of, or in the space of, sales and business development and coaching managers and sales teams and so forth. I had one manager say yeah, you know what I like to do. We have people, we have a very confined territory I mean it's just within our area code or whatever it is. All of my people are in close proximity, but out in the field. He said I like to go out and just show up and when they're on appointment and just show up and surprise them and say, hey, I'm going to be working with you today, I do remember saying, okay, well, so how does, how does that work out? He goes well, I mean, they're on their toes and uh, uh, they've all kind of got used to it that I'll just show up. I'm thinking once again why do you feel the need to do that?
Sara Best:Um, well, that seems more about him yeah what he needs and not at all attentive to how people work best and how to support people working effectively. I think about the stats you often share, John, about change challengers.
John Broer:Uh-huh.
Sara Best:But 62.8% of the population? Or is it the other way around 68.2, 62.8%?
John Broer:Change challengers is around 64%.
Sara Best:64% of the population in that category. Those are people that need a little runway and planning. They need to be aware of what's coming next. Surprises like that, things that completely shift the focus or the schedule or, you know, move the deck chairs all of a sudden, they shut people down, they make their work ineffective, they kind of make people freeze up. So it's like a gotcha moment and, yeah, I just don't think that's healthy.
John Broer:And see, this is why I wanted to talk about this, because I think this is Boss hole behavior, that, ultimately, now this person, that example, that last example and I think you know you made this point before we hit record. Maybe they're just saying, hey, I want to make myself available, I want to be out there with you, I'm going to show up, I know your itinerary for the day. I'm here to help. That could very well be their intent.
Sara Best:Okay, then note to self.
John Broer:Okay.
Sara Best:How about just say would that be helpful? Yeah, I'd like to offer this support. Would you find that valuable? Could I? Could I come in you know shadow with you? Or if I, you know, I'd like to, I'd really like to spend time. What would be a good week. What would be a good day.
John Broer:And, and not only that, but like, since the manager is going to show up, how can, how can you use me, a salesperson or a client representative if I know that I'm going to have a manager with me, that can change the whole tone or approach or strategy to a call. But if you just pop in, I mean that totally blows that out of the water. So I love that perspective. Now the other one this guy was definitely a Boss hole. He said, and kind of proudly he said, well, I got, I got people all over the country. And he said, and I'll okay.
John Broer:Now, part of this I'm thinking, was he just full of crap? I mean, this could be BS. But he said I, he would show up in their city, which means he either had to drive there or he had to fly there on a Monday or Tuesday. Because he added the itinerary and said I'm with you this week, I'm going to be spending the next couple of days with you. And I do know, I do know in that case he was trying to trap them, he was trying to catch them, sort of padding their itinerary and, you know, really, maybe communicating this is my itinerary, but I'm going to really, you know, see if this is what he's doing, this person or the salesperson or representative is doing during the week and I'm thinking, okay, that's just sick and that is smoke from. That's smoke from a different fire.
John Broer:You've got other issues and then, when it comes to all of this, Sara and we talk about trust so much on the podcast and in our work. This does not help to build trust in any way. Any of these scenarios. And I'm thinking, if you feel like you have to trick or trap or spy on your direct reports, there are other problems or issues at play that need your attention first. Does that make sense?
Sara Best:It makes total sense to me, John. I would offer that one of the things that's likely missing in that scenario is a skill set. Missing in that scenario is a skill set, a leader skill set, where questions are asked, appropriate questions, data is shared back and forth and direct feedback is provided. Candor is part of the conversation. So this whole mysterious like I'm going to show up and get you Right if the target is close in range or it's not- you know, your performance is hitting the marker.
Sara Best:It isn't, and I'm going to be the kind of person that supports even if you're not hitting the target. We're going to investigate why. So, communication, leadership, trust, autonomy, those kinds of things are absent in this little tactic.
John Broer:Oh yeah, for sure, for sure. And again, I know we like to assume positive intent, but let's face it, we've talked about this for over almost five years now in the Bossh ole Chronicles and we just know that there are managers out there that do not have positive intent and they're assuming the wrong thing. So you know, I remember when Todd Dewitt, Dr. Todd Dewitt was on the program and he talked about you know, it used to be when everybody worked in the same office we would manage by observation. I could see if you were working and in reality people could still be screwing around and not working. But in reality now, because people are dispersed, it's like we have to measure based on performance, and so that changes the whole metric to your point autonomy, trust and being really clear on what we're measuring. But if you feel the need to trap your people or spy on them, something else is wrong and you may be really really sort of mired in the Boss hole zone and you want to get out. You absolutely want to get out.
Sara Best:You do, and if there's other similar kind of off- the- wall sort of tactics, I think one clue for a leader or manager if they have any question mark in their mind about an approach or something they'd like to do in response to a challenge or performance issue, run it by a trusted colleague for input before you go ahead and pull the trigger on that little approach.
John Broer:Yeah.
Sara Best:Because I think you could save yourself a lot of time and effort and agony, and also for the employee.
John Broer:I totally agree and I think that's great advice. So well, thanks for letting me bring this up again. I never experienced it. Fortunately I did not have- my managers were courteous enough that when they wanted to travel with me and do some joint calls, it was very well thought out. We had a great strategy. Nobody just showed up on my doorstep, but I hope that's few and far between, but great advice, Sara, thank you.
Sara Best:Thank you, John. I guess we'll see you next time on "You Might Be a Boss Hole If.
John Broer:Thanks very much for checking out this episode of the Bossh ole Chronicles. It was so good to have you here, and if you have your own Bossh ole story that you want to share with the Bossh ole Transformation Nation, just reach out. You can email us at mystory@thebossholechronicles. com. Again, mystory@thebossholechronicles. com, we'll see you next time.