06/05/2026
You’ve probably gotten this far in your leadership career because you possess a certain level of self-awareness and maturity as an adult.
This indicate a willingness to look as objectively as possible at current behaviors and to identify areas for improvement.
So, if you want to do good by your people, you have to take a look in the mirror.
Do you see any of these traits in yourself? 👇
1️⃣ You don’t trust your people and don’t expect them to trust you.
If you sneak up on people to see if they’re shopping online instead of completing a project, you don’t trust them. If you ask specific questions about their illness when they call in sick, you don’t trust them. That puts your people on edge and encourages sneakiness, not compliance.
2️⃣ Since you don’t trust your team to do things correctly, you watch them like a hawk. Then you step in often to do things the right (aka your) way.
You get bent out of shape when you train your people on a process and they make any modifications. Clearly, the ONLY way to do something is your way.
3️⃣ You share information with your team unevenly.
Sometimes people on your team have to find out from others about important company updates. You might share some parts with some people and not bother to tell others at all. Or you withhold information as a way of punishing someone for a recent transgression.
4️⃣ Everyone knows you have team favorites.
Nobody likes hearing about how the golden child can do no wrong. When you only have eyes for one member of your team, you fail to recognize others for their good work. Being the golden child is hard on the golden child, too, who stresses out about falling from grace.
5️⃣ When things go well, you accept all the credit for the team’s efforts. If things go wrong, you throw your team under the bus.
Studies show that even more than money, people want to be recognized for their efforts.
Leaders should take every possible opportunity to brag about their people. When things go wrong, the leader should accept the blame. The buck stops here, as it were.
6️⃣ You overshare your personal issues with your team, and worse, you share others’ issues with them too.
Your people should not become your personal therapists. Save the marriage and kid problems for the professionals. And no matter how juicy the story, playing the office gossip diminishes your status and further erodes team trust.
If you detected moderate to severe symptoms of crappy bossdom, take heart! You can unlearn some bad habits with patience, persistence, and a solid helping of humble pie.
Poor managers can totally learn to reform their soul-crushing ways by diving into the How to Be a Great Boss Toolkit, or by downloading a free chapter of "How to Be a Great Boss" by Gino Wickman and René Boer 👉 https://www.eosworldwide.com/how-to-be-a-great-boss-book
These time-tested tools and theories have worked for more than 30,000 bosses in every industry so if you're ready to dramatically improve both your organization’s performance and your team’s excitement about their work, it's time to dive in 👉 https://www.eosworldwide.com/how-to-be-a-great-boss-book
