The Next Phase

As promised in my previous post, The Next Phase Blog Hits 5,000 Page Views, I have moved it from BlogSpot to WordPress. The move is designed to make the blog more flexible and visible. You should notice no difference in access. If you click on the old Blogspot URL, you will be redirected to the new site automagically.

The Next Phase -- New Look

This change was accomplished only with the help and unfailing good cheer of my friend and Web expert, Jon Rider, founder and principal of JetStream Consulting. If you want to build a web site, convert a blog, fix a problem or get an expert analysis of your website’s SEO quotient, I recommend Jon and JetStream Consulting highly.

Jon advised me on how to start the process and work with GoDaddy to cget a domain name reate the site that houses my blog. He also wrote WordPress code, created the page design and TNP logo, solved problems, moved all my previous 100+ BlogSpot posts to WordPress and held my hand when I was confused—which happened more often than I’d hoped. Once again, Jon, thank you, thank you, thank you!

The Next Phase now has a newly designed site with added features.

New Features

The posts are all categorized with a list that appears on the left side of the page. You can now view all the posts about movies, for example, by clicking on the Movies category. The most recent post will appear and you access the others by clicking on Prevous Posts at the bottom.

There are new pages, one with my biography and another with contact information.
An archive of posts by month gives you easy access.
Social media buttons appear on the home page so you can post something easily on Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ or Twitter.

Still, I have more work to do. The old posts carried over the BlogSpot code, which does not translate smoothly in WordPress. So the older posts do not look as polished as the new ones. Line spacing is inconsistent and pictures don’t wrap with the text. I am fixing these old posts one by one but it takes time to complete all of them.

In the meantime, I’ll be posting new articles and hoping that you enjoy them. In the meantime, if you enjoy reading The Next Phase, please help me to expand readership by sharing posts on Facebook, retweeting my tweets about new posts, or sending an email to friends who might enjoy a particular topic. Also, if you sign up to be a blog member or connect on Google Friend Connect, you’ll receive notices whenever a new post goes live.

And feel free to comment whenever you want. I enjoy hearing from all my readers and will try to reply to any post that opens a dialog.

Thank you all for reading The Next Phase blog and for going on my journey along with me. I look forward to more of the trip.

After one of my posts on bosses who exhibit the symptoms of one disorder spectrum or another, Dr. Brian Monger of @SmartaMarketing asked me if I could recommend any ways of dealing with someone like that. It’s a tough question. Assuming that none of us in corporate America have the kind of education and clinical background to make an accurate diagnosis (and why would we be working in a corporation if we did?) employees are left to cope with a set of inexplicable behaviors, attitudes and communications. And no platform on which to stand while we do it.

Mr. Burns

This isn’t exactly a hidden problem. Steve Tobak on CBS/Moneywatch offers “7 Signs of a Dysfunctional Boss.” Les McKeown of Inc. recommends “How to Fix Your Dysfunctional Boss,” Pragmatic Marketing has some good “Strategies for Dealing with an Irrational Boss.” Googling this topic brings up a long, sad list of articles on everything from @Forbes to @Monster. Books have been written on the topic and TV loves dysfunctional bosses because they make such good dramatic tension.

The fact that so much is written about it indicates the scope of the problem in American business. My problem with some of this advice, though, is that the authors glom different behaviors into one label whereas behaviors differ depending on what his problem really is. Having said that, here are some purely personal ideas and suggestions that might help, regardless of his dysfunction:

Don’t try to change him. This is the first and biggest hurdle to clear. The behavior of your boss, your VP, your co-worker, or the CEO was set a long time ago. Whether it’s genetic and inherited from parents, driven by his/her cultural upbringing and education, a set of coping mechanisms developed in childhood, or the result of fluctuations in brain chemicals, the behavior has been with him/her a long time. Nothing you—or possibly even a psychiatric professional—can say or do will change that. Attempting to do so will just make you frustrated. It might also cause him/her to target you as a threatening person and a troublemaker.

Michael Scott

Observe his behavior carefully. As Yogi Berra famously said, “You can observe a lot just by watching.” You want to familiarize yourself with the person’s behavior because it’s important to know what you have to work with—or work around—as you go about your job. If you can predict that his “Behavior A” will cause your “Reaction B,” then you can prepare for or avoid that behavior. Conversely, if you know that saying or doing something will cause a negative or unpredictable reaction in him, you can train yourself to avoid that behavior.

Make sure that your annoyance doesn’t come from a clash between his working style and yours. I once became annoyed with a boss who was never in the office because I wanted to talk with him personally and go over my plans and accomplishments with him face to face. He, on the other hand, thought it was more important to be in the field, helping the sales force and was irritated that I wasn’t communicating with him through email and phone messages. Once this discrepancy was pointed out to me—along with the fact that the boss gets to set the working style—I adjusted my own behavior and we both became much happier.

Provide Strength Where He Is Weak. Someone who is bipolar, ADD, Asperger’s or in possession of another behavioral dysfunction will most likely have a visible weakness. Remember that your first job is not to perform the function for which the company hired you, the one that involves all the expertise and achievements on your resume. Your first job is to make your boss look good and to make his life easier. Accomplishing that will help you to succeed with most normal people and quite a few dysfunctional ones as well. They typically know where they are weak and are grateful if someone on their staff is willing to back them up.

At another company, I asked my boss for the monthly Actuals Report so I could manage my department’s budget and know exactly how much I had left to spend. He thought for a moment, then turned and pulled the report out of the trash. I asked him to please send it directly to me the next time he received it and I would take care of it. After that, I managed his budget for the whole department and he was happy to have me do it. That way he could take credit for being on top of things without actually spending time on something he hated. Managing the budget directly made my job easier as well and gave me some valuable experience.

Louis Litt

Stay Organized: A dysfunctional boss is often disorganized as well. Keeping all your ducks in a row will accomplish two things. It will make you the dependable one he can turn to when he’s confused or under pressure to provide the board with information he doesn’t have at his fingertips. It also gives you any background information you may need to cover your butt or look good if he wanders into the weeds or goes off the deep end.

Maintain Your Identity: Do everything you can to put mental space between you and his bizarre or infuriating behavior. Remind yourself often that you are not the problem and you are not responsible for his actions. Create distance between you—physical if possible and mental if not. Move your office far from his if you can. Wear headphones while you work. Meditate every day and/or go out for a noontime walk. Retreat to a conference room to work and leave a sign on your desk so he can find you when needed. Exercise as often as you can in order to blow off stress and pump up your endorphins.

Be Invisible: When all else fails, hide. I once interviewed a candidate who had spent over four years in an event company known for its volatile, abusive, and insulting founder with consequent high employee churn. With a smile, I asked him how he had accomplished this amazing feat. “I’m tall,” he replied. I didn’t see how that was relevant so he explained. “I could see over the cubicle walls and he couldn’t. So when I saw him coming, I just went somewhere else for a while.” That’s good street smarts.

Walter White

Having said all of this, I know only too well that any or all of these suggestions may work just sometimes—or until they don’t. Unpredictability is a hallmark of the dysfunctional boss. It goes along with his lack of interest in your job satisfaction, general happiness or ability to pay the mortgage. The only thing that matters to him is his job, his career, and his mortgage. If you can help him with those things, you’ll be in better shape than if you fight him, go around him, or show your contempt for his work performance.

Above all, do not go over his head and complain unless you have a sizeable group of people who are willing to go with you to Human Resources. And I mean actually walking into the HR department with you. It’s not enough for people to say they’ll back you up if you complain: that makes you the focus of the problem.

Keep in mind that HR probably knows he’s a problem, knows all about the churn, has heard stories of the weird or abusive behavior, and agrees with your assessment. But that doesn’t mean they’ll do anything about it. In my entire career, I can only remember one instance where HR stood up on their hind legs and fought for the members of a department against a VP. Even more astonishing, they won. But don’t count on this happening. It’s far more likely that you’ll be targeted as a troublemaker and you really don’t want that to happen. After all, it’s far easier to get rid of you, an employee at will, than it is to fire an executive with a contract.

Bottom line: If all else fails and you can’t stand the thought of going to work every morning, . . . If your stomach hurts when you see an email from him . . . If you wake up at 2 am worried about what he’s going to do to you next . . . If you start snapping at your spouse or kids and want to kick the dog . . .or worse . . .

It’s time to leave.

If you have developed a successful technique for dealing with a dysfunctional boss, I would really love to hear it. You can comment on the post or send me an email at alinemkaplan@gmail.com.

Good luck.

Related posts:

The Next Phase

Monday, July 29, 2013

The Next Phase Has a New Site

Friday, July 26, 2013

The Next Phase Changes Platforms

Monday, July 22, 2013

Six Survival Tactics for Working With a Dysfunctional Boss