Managing Incompetent Managers

It’s self-evident that managers manage people. Some of those who manage, however, are also managed. Even in the flattest of hierarchies, unless you’re “No. 1,” then you, too, have a manager. You also know what it’s like to work for good managers and bad ones.

The purpose of this article is two-fold. It’s to look at how to manage incompetent managers who manage you, and also how to manage the incompetent ones you manage.

Managing incompetent managers who manage you

 If you are among those who are managed by incompetent managers, then you have a fairly unique learning opportunity. It may not feel that but, when you think about it, you’ll realize how those you supervise might feel. That’s not to say that you’re incompetent or even that the people you supervise think you are. It’s simply to say that when you’re wearing the hat of a non-manager, rather than as a manager, you see things differently. In other words, whatever faults you wish that you could remove from your own supervisor need to be taken to heart because it’s just possible that they’re true of you, too.

Human beings have a remarkable ability to find in others the faults that they’re guilty of. And so if you see something you don’t like in those who manage you, then it’s worth at least a look to see if you’re doing it yourself.

For example, do you expect the one who manages you to be flexible, to allow you to work from home when you wish, or to be flexible with your hours, or to give you time off during the week when you need it? If so, then you need to ask yourself if this is something that you’re willing to do for those that you manage. You practice a double standard if you don’t. The old saying that “what’s good for the goose is good for the gander” couldn’t be more true.

Now the thing is that you may not be able to change the behavior of the person who manages you, much as you would like to. So, what can you do?

You can change your behavior so that you can mitigate your circumstances, at least until you’re promoted and change organizations. Nowadays, people change jobs often. Although employers aren’t happy about it, it’s something that everyone recognizes will happen.

How can you change your behavior, especially if there’s a risk that in so doing you may jeopardize your position?

Focus on what you can do

The first thing that you can do is to focus on what you can do, rather than on what you can’t do.

This is the opposite of what most people do. Most people think constantly about what isn’t possible.  And the thing is that the more you dwell on what you can’t do, the less you’ll be able to do. That’s because of something called the reticular activating system. It’s a part of your brain that notices more of what you notice.

For instance, if you’ve decided that there’s a particular make, model, and color car that you want, the more you focus on it, the more of them you’ll see. That’s because your brain has noticed that you think this is important, and so it goes about showing you where they are. And so, if you think about what you can do, then you’ll see more and more opportunities to do that, and your influence will expand. But, if you focus on what you can’t do, then your brain won’t show you those opportunities. Your prophecy will be fulfilled in that your degree of influence will shrink.

Focusing on what you can do is something that you’ll need to do every day until it becomes a habit. You want to get yourself into that frame of mind where you’re “naturally” like this all the time.

You’ll notice something else, too. Your attitude will improve and, as a result, you’ll get more done, even if that means doing more of your boss’ work.

It’s essential that you focus on the positive because it will keep you from becoming bitter or cynical about your situation. Stop brooding about how bad things are and take charge.

Get off their radar

The second thing you must do to manage an incompetent boss is to get off their radar. Incompetent managers have a way of not minding their own business. That’s a diplomatic way of saying that they micromanage. The best way to minimize that is to be unnoticed. In the physical world, that may mean avoiding the places at work that this person goes to or taking coffee breaks and lunch at times that are different from theirs. If you have the flexibility to do that, you can save yourself a lot of grief. Out of sight is out of mind. Fortunately, remote and virtual work has made this even easier.

Take care of yourself

The third thing you must do is to take care of yourself.

That may seem obvious, but if it were, then you wouldn’t see people burning out at work. Burnout comes from doing too much: Working too many hours, failing to get sufficient rest consistently, and failing to relax.

It’s impossible to focus on the good that you can do in your job if you’re burning the candle at both ends and not taking the time you need to relax. When you’re overtired, it’s harder to sleep. In fact, it’s harder to do everything. It’ll take you twice as long to do your work, and the quality will be less. And then when you do have time off, you’ll be unable to recharge your physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual batteries. Need to drag yourself out of bed on any morning should be a warning sign that you’re probably overtired.

When, for instance, was the last time you went on vacation for at least a week, with a weekend at each end, and you didn’t check in with work, answer work emails, or take work phone calls? If you’re like most people, the answer is likely to be years. And that’s because people have gotten out of the habit of taking an absolute break from work. Their personal cell phone is the same one they use for work. They’re always in their work inbox, seven days per week. If you want to recover properly, then you must learn to disconnect yourself from your work entirely on a regular basis, and if your work is such that you can’t do this, especially if it’s because your manager expects you to be available all the time, then it’s time to dust off your resumé.

 How to manage incompetent managers that you manage

Here the shoe is on the other foot, so to speak. You’re the manager, and you’re looking at managers that you supervise who are incompetent.

Maybe they’ve been promoted into a role for which they’re unqualified, or maybe they’re qualified, but for some reason can’t get the people they supervise to meet their targets, or maybe there’s a morale problem. There are all kinds of things that could be evident in an incompetent manager.

As their supervisors, what can you do?

Identify the root problem

The first thing you must do is to identify the root problem. Now that’s not as easy as it sounds.

Many people, especially managers, are short-sighted when it comes to this. They treat symptoms as if they were the cause, never really taking the trouble to find out if it is or not. And you’re never going to be able to fix the incompetence without knowing what lies at the bottom of the issue.

For example, what causes low morale?

There are several possibilities. It could be an unequal application of organizational policies – a lack of fairness, in other words. It could be that the manager sows distrust through micromanagement. It could be that there’s harassment occurring among the workforce, and they’re unwilling to face it. Whatever it is, you have to independently verify what that root problem is and taking the word of the manager you manage isn’t how you do it. It means that you or your trusted and insightful representatives must dig down into the circumstances to find out what is going on.

If there’s more than one problem, then you need to know that, too. You can’t take anything for granted.

Act swiftly to solve the problem

It may take you awhile to narrow down the one or more fundamental problems that a manager you supervise has, but once you know what you’re dealing with, then you need to act as quickly as you can to solve it.

If that means replacing the manager, then do so. That alone, however, will seldom be enough. You also must address the issues.

If unfairness is a problem, then everyone who was a victim of it needs to be assured that those things will be rectified, and that it won’t happen again. And then you need to change the policies to make sure that they don’t.

Open the lines of communication

The third thing you can do is to assure everyone that you are in the chain-of-command, too. That means that if for some reason their supervisor – the manager that you manage – isn’t available, that they can ask you for an opinion.

It also means that you need to make yourself available.

This we’re-all-in-this-together mentality must be worked out in practice. People need to feel it. They need to know that there won’t be any repercussions if they choose to talk to you instead of their immediate supervisor, and the managers that you manage need to recognize that that’s the case, too. There’s such a thing as chemistry between people, and so it means that some people will be more comfortable talking to their supervisor, while others will prefer to talk to someone else. They should be free to do this if they wish.

Schedule management training for your managers

About half of managers and half of employees believe that managers need more training to be better managers. That means that you, as their supervisor, need to make sure that they get that training. This is true even if you think that the ones you supervise are top drawer.

Good management is a skill that can be learned, but what happens so often is that they’ll excuse themselves from it because they’re too busy or think that they don’t need it. It’s much better to err on the side of caution than to pass it off as unimportant and end up dealing with an incompetent manager.

Consider a virtual training program such as Rocket Manager to help accelerate your newly-hired/promoted managers into their new roles.

Mentor your managers

It’s time consuming to do this, but if you mentor your managers, then you can minimize the chances that they’ll become incompetent. For one thing, you can share your own experiences, but for another, iron sharpens iron. You can learn from one another and both of you will increase your skill.

You’ll also learn how to better manage yourself.

If you want to learn a topic better than anyone else, then teach it. Mentoring will give you an opportunity to do just that.

Incompetent management is widespread among organizations, especially now in the era of hybrid work. Part of the problem is a lack of training, but another part of it is that they, too, are badly managed. If you’re among them, then focus on what you can do, stay out of their way, and look after yourself. If, on the other hand, those you manage are incompetent, then make sure that you’re doing all you can to help them. It’s as much your responsibility as it is theirs.