What Type Of Boss Do You Have? Office Politics

Here is an excerpt from the book "How to Win Office Politics" which shows analogy between bosses and animals. Where does your boss fit?

Bosses are bosses and we have no control on our bosses. But your ability to understand the type of boss you have- will help you change your behaviour, strategy and politics according to nature of your boss. There are many types of bosses who have a mix of personality and can be very unpredictable at times. According to my observations, there are the following types of bosses according to their qualities. This is another categorization of bosses based on analogy with animals. The categorization is based on the analogy with jungle animals.

1. Python boss: This type of boss can never be satisfied � do whatever you want. He always cries on everybody and he feels that nobody is doing his job properly in the office. Whatever good happens in the company is because of his efforts. He does almost nothing but takes all credit. Employees are in the tight grip of this type of this boss as an animal in the grip of python. Everyone under him tries to leave the job as soon as possible.

Handle: This type of boss is very difficult to handle. Only an experienced and emotionless Office Politician can win over him by playing different type of games with him. Frustrate him secretly as much as you can. If you are in grip of Python, keep searching new jobs. When you have a Job offer in your hand, give this type of boss a damn. Do not open a war against him openly, as he is powerful enough to handle most of his subordinates.

2. Jackal boss: Jackal Boss is very clever person. He wants to steal the credits and is very unreliable person. He always looks for the mistakes in a sheepish way. His main aim is to safeguard his job and sack any person who is a threat to him. This type of boss is popular in most of the employees and hated by a few.

Handle: Jackals can be handled by giving loaf of meats at times and giving shocks at time. This man must have created a big halo around him. He is most afraid if there is any hole in the halo. Look out for this man�s mistakes and secrets and inform him. You can easily handle this person by gaining confidence of this person slowly and slowly.

3. Monkey boss: This type of boss is a fun loving person and he does very unusual things that can some time humour you and at other times frustrate you. His working style is a mess, and under him a certain degree of chaos exists in the office and nobody else can easily understand and organize his job especially in his absence.

Handle: Handling this type of boss is easy. He is ideal boss for playing office politics. He makes mistakes and does funny things. He tries to play as hard as he can and also have an urge to win, but dexterously handled he is of great use. You can tease him, complaint him and play politics with him. He may not harm you to the death but if he bites you will have to bear lot of pain for sometime.

4. Donkey boss: This type of boss is butt-sucker and reaches to this position by maintaining very good relations with his seniors. He is ready to do anything the owner or his boss asks. He usually does not have any soul and is not moved by emotions. Anything that comes in way of his position or money will be kicked. He usually does not disturb anybody but in case of some danger can kickback as an ass.

Handle: This type of Boss hates activeness and over enthusiasm. Here the tactics is to work calmly. Try to avoid uncomfortable positions in the office, and never be a part of the problems. Avoid contacting boss frequently because he is eating grass in the grass land. The more peacefully you play the more results you will get. He cannot provide safety or security to his subordinates and frustrates people under him. If anybody else harms you, he is of no use; you have to use your own tools.

5. Deer boss: This is very rare breed of boss found on the earth. The reason being the people with this type of character cannot reach higher designations. If he is a boss at some senior positions, consider he is very lucky man. Deer Boss is a like deer he is busy eating grass, sharing happiness and bearing all the pains when the top boss is roaring. I have seen such type of bosses in Government jobs where they reach the top by time bound promotions.

Handle: As the boss is deer you have top most advantages here. If your emotional factor has reached the lowest level, the best thing you can do is to replace him. But if you still have some soul remaining in your, wait for this man�s death in organization. Sooner or later he will be preyed by somebody. However, you should rise above and make groups with more powerful people because when he departs you will never know what management�s next move is. Your strong relations with the higher boss will be more useful.

Notice the habits of your boss: Always try to make of note of what pleases your boss and what not. Try to mimic your Boss�s habits. If he is coming to office in time, try to reach early. If he replies the mails immediately, reply to mails immediately. If he is straight forwarded to you, he will expect same from you. However, your out performance can hurt your boss�s ego. Be careful.

'What type of boss do you have?", How to Win Office Politics

Here's my take about this issue:

Why it matters to know the types of boss you should avoid?

Basically, loyalty is a characteristic often sought by managers in their employees. This is attributed to the manager who represents the organization and in the way he delivers a message to employees that he is a significant stakeholder in the organization and needs the support of its subordinates.

The manager-staff relationship is an important element of victory not just for the team, but for the whole organization. This fact greatly affects the role of a manager not just in measuring the performance; but more importantly, a manager who can mold and contribute in shaping an employee’s loyalty.

No matter how beneficial the program that is implemented or how beautiful the intention of the organization is to take care of its employees, those employee programs will not matter if a manager mishandles an employee or does not properly address employees’ issues.

In this article, we will not talk about the role of a manager. Instead, we will identify the types of bad managers in your company.

So what are the kinds of managers should you avoid and what can you learn from them?

1. I am never wrong. I am always right.

This is the manager who will never admit that he committed any mistake in his entire corporate life. He will never accept any suggestion. He does not listen, although he does sometimes. He is always there to interrupt whenever he’s NOT needed. For him, his opinion matters in whatever situation and form. He is the always know-how guy. And overly confident person and thinks that without him, his department will ‘die.’ Since he is self-righteous, he must have taken credits from all the accolades that you deserve… without sharing it to you. His insecurity is definitely over the top. He works hard (I do hope so) and the best lesson that you can learn from him is the virtue of patience and respect.

2. The Jurassic.

This kind of manager is someone who does not embrace the concept of change. Ever heard of a manager saying, “This is what we used to do. So it should stay this way!” One of the things that you need to understand is that you’ll never grow from this stagnant-mind person. Just because he is too comfortable of what is going on and does not plan of improving or even exceeding his performance. He is the average manager who just wants an average result. He doesn’t need to challenge the department because he just wants to rest in his nest, until the next storm comes. You can. He are on their prime ages and you can usually find him in small time companies/business. Often, such businesses are not competitive and dies quickly. This is why the majority of small businesses fail. And what’s the best thing from this manager? Well, you don’t need an advance skill, you can’t be fired that easy and you’ll have more pay due to the fact that they don’t want to extend efforts in recruitment.

3. The people ‘pleaser!’

This manager won’t do anything against the will of his boss. This is even if he needs to fire someone just to fulfill his personal desire. He is a social butterfly and will often engage in up to a dozen conversations with complete strangers just to reach his business. He loves office politics. You will definitely see him, a lot, in his line manager’s office talking about anything but business. You will often hear him saying “consider it done, solved, etc.” in front of his line manager even if the thing hasn’t ever been done or thought. Since he is a people pleaser, he would often rely more on external people than your own measured performance. He is more of sentiment-driven person than performance-oriented. And what’s the best thing to learn from him, you should learn to become a social person making sure that you are in good terms with 95% of all employees and customers (if you can do it).

Certainly, there are more types of boss in your company. These three just seem to stand out among them – managers to avoid. Although they are bad at an external perception, they still provide a lesson that you can definitely learn from. Indeed, they are good examples of the bad type.

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