Self-Assessment Quiz: Are You A Difficult Boss?

If you answered “yes” to any of the following questions, you need to reflect on and adjust your management style.

• Do you give employees more critical feedback than appreciation, compliments, and positive feedback?
• Do you undercut praise with criticism? In other words, do you deliver criticism with praise in the form of a “feedback sandwich,” undermine the positive impact of praise, and weaken the significance of the corrective feedback?
• Do you give unfeasible or contradictory orders? For example, do you fail to give employees enough resources, time, and direction to get a job done?
• Do you play favorites?
• Do you reward “yes” people?
• Do you avoid taking responsibility for your mistakes?
• Do you focus on assigning blame and finding fault instead of fixing a problem?
• Do you set deadlines and forget to follow up?
• Do you micromanage too often?
• Do you regularly coach your employees?
• Do you invent busy work?
• Do you stand up for your employees?
• Are you sometimes self-absorbed and manipulative? Are you sometimes cold or abrupt?
• Do you fail to give productive people encouragement, autonomy, and latitude?
• Do you expect that there’s only one way to do a job, and that’s your way?
• Do you raise your voice unnecessarily?
• Do your employees avoid eye contact or dread meeting with you?
• Do you act as if your team or organization would fall apart if you were to go on a vacation for a week? Do you expect regular updates from your team even while you’re on vacation?
• Do you withhold information from your staff because it takes too much time to fill them in?
• Do you ignore workplace concerns (inappropriate dressing, for example) until they evolve into problems? In other words, do you let concerns fester and let problematic situations get worse?