別灰心 遇到糟糕的老闆會令你成爲更好的管理者大綱

Many of us can point to former bosses and corporate heads who inspired us to become more well-read, better at communication, or more engaged because of their shining examples. But what about those leaders who shaped our behavior and management style because of the negative example they have set?

大多數人可能都能舉出幾個例子，在一些前老闆和公司領導人光輝榜樣的鼓舞下，你終於變得更博學，更擅長溝通，或者更積極敬業。但你有沒有想過，有一些領導者由於其樹立的反面例子，也塑造了我們的行爲和管理風格？

“We learn from everyone we work with, whether they’re good or bad experiences. They can be examples of things not to do,” says Gay Gaddis, chief executive and founder of T3, an Austin-based digital agency. “All of us have had people who were obstacles, who were bad examples. Sharing that is just as important as going, ‘Rah, rah!’ “

奧斯丁數碼公司T3首席執行官兼創始人蓋伊o加迪斯認爲：“我們向一起工作的所有人學習，不論這些人給我們帶來的經歷是好還是壞。有些可以作爲負面教材。我們總會遇上討厭的人，分享壞榜樣對你的發展同樣重要。”

So, what have Gaddis and other executives learned from misguided, wrongheaded, or simply evil bosses?

那麼，加迪斯和其他高管從那些走錯路的、固執己見的、或者惡魔般的老闆身上，學到了什麼？

The cost of a closed mind

封閉性心理的代價

When Gaddis was a marketing executive, her chief executive was overbearing, assumed he was always right, and failed to listen to others. During an economic downturn, Gaddis developed an idea on how to change the company’s direction to recover from the slump. She wrote a business plan and, full of excitement, presented it to her boss and mentor.

加迪斯擔任市場營銷總監時，她所在公司的首席執行官專橫傲慢，認爲自己始終都是正確的，從來不聽從其他人的意見。在經濟低迷時期，對於如何改變公司的方向，從衰退中恢復過來，加迪斯產生了一個想法。她寫了一份商業計劃，懷着萬分激動的心情，將計劃書提交給自己的老闆兼導師。

“He said, ‘I don’t support your plan and I’m not going to be a part of it.’ I was so shot down by that,” she recalls, that she quit to pursue her idea. “I learned that is a very important quality: you’ve got to listen to the people around you.”

她回憶道：“他說：‘我不支持你的計劃，我不會參與其中。’這讓我深受打擊。”於是，她放棄了繼續推行自己的創意。“我學到了一種非常重要的品質：你必須聽取周圍的人的意見。”

Gaddis never would’ve thought to go out on her own if the door hadn’t been slammed so firmly in her face by the CEO. Indeed, his refusal to listen was part of her motivation to hit the ground running.

如果不是CEO狠狠關上了她面前的那扇大門，加迪斯可能永遠不會考慮自己創業。事實上，正是他拒絕傾聽的做法，成爲加迪斯滿含熱情開創新事業的動力。

The importance of delegation

授權的重要性

Cynthia Gonzales, an educator based in San Marcos, Texas, used to work for a boss who made up and changed rules arbitrarily, depending on the situation. Employees never knew which rules would apply at any given moment, and they had to depend on the boss’s say-so for everything.

來自德克薩斯州聖馬科斯的辛西婭o岡薩雷斯之前的一位老闆，會根據情況，武斷地制定和修改規定。員工永遠不清楚，哪一條規則在什麼時候適用，因此他們做每件事情，都取決於老闆的個人意見。

One time, Gonzales arrived to check out a pre-reserved company vehicle to take a student to an off-site venue, only to find that her boss had countermanded the reservation and given the car to someone else. “The expectation is that I would use my private vehicle. Concerned with personal liability, I refused,” she explains. “Our private vehicles, if we were in any kind of accident, were not covered under the insurance, and I have someone else’s precious child with me.”

有一次，岡薩雷斯提前預定了一輛公司的車，要送一位學生前往另外一個地方，結果發現老闆取消了預定，把車派給了其他人。她解釋道：“她希望我能用自己的車。因爲擔心個人責任，我拒絕了這一要求。駕駛私家車出現事故，不屬於保險範圍，而且跟我在一起的是別人心愛的孩子。”

The leader ended up driving the student herself, a less efficient solution that effectively had her doing Gonzales’ job. Because of her experience, Gonzales says she empowers her staff to make their own decisions and expects them to follow pre-established guidelines and rules, rather than look to her for answers.

最後的結果是，老闆自己開車送走了那名學生。這是一種效率低下的做法，事實上，她做了岡薩雷斯的工作。在這一次經歷之後，岡薩雷斯表示，她會授權下屬自己做決定，並且要求他們遵守之前確立的指導方針和規定，而不是向她尋求答案。

“I define a task and assign it to someone, give them a deadline and say, ‘If I can be a resource to you, let me know,’ ” she says. “My philosophy on management is my job is to make the people who answer to me as successful as possible. My job is to facilitate their success.”

她說道：“我會確定一項任務，將它分配給其他人，提出一個最終期限，然後說：‘如果我能提供任何幫助，請告訴我。’我的管理理念是，我的工作就是讓下屬儘可能做到成功。我的工作是幫助他們取得成功。”

How fear can bury problems

恐懼心理導致問題被隱瞞

Gail, a marketing executive based in Seattle, used to work for a company whose founder publicly criticized members of the team. He would say things like, “I can do your job better than you and I can do it with just PowerPoint” to the lead designer.

來自西雅圖的市場營銷總監蓋爾曾供職的一家公司，其創始人會公開批評團隊成員。他會對首席設計師說：“我做你的工作肯定比你做得好，我只用幻燈片就能把事情做好。”

Not only was the behavior humiliating and demoralizing, it discouraged the staff from bringing problems to his attention. “It creates a climate of fear, and a climate of fear is never a great way to run a business,” she says. “Real problems in your business will not be exposed when they’re still solvable and instead they’re going to fester and turn into big problems.”

這樣的言論帶有羞辱性，會讓人喪失信心，而且會導致員工不敢提出問題。她說：“這在公司內形成了一種恐懼的氛圍，而這絕對不是一種好的公司運營方式。公司真正的問題在還有可能解決的時候不會暴露出來，而是會繼續惡化，直到變得嚴重。”

Now that she’s a manager, she encourages her team to bring any concerns or mistakes to her attention. Whenever they do point out a mistake, she goes out of her way to thank them. “As a result, my work is better,” she says. “If you’re going to make a mistake and your team catches it, that’s way better than if you send out an important marketing memo with a typo in it or create a landing page with a mistake.”

如今，蓋爾也成爲一名管理者，她會鼓勵團隊向她提出任何擔憂或錯誤。只要有團隊成員提出錯誤，她都會特地表示感謝。她說道：“結果是，我的工作更出色。你的下屬在你犯錯之前幫你消滅它，要遠遠好於你發出一份帶有拼寫錯誤的重要營銷備忘錄，或者創建了一個帶有錯誤的登陸頁面。”

The value of honest feedback

誠實反饋的價值

Courtney Johnston, a consultant based in Bethesda, Md., went to work for a long-time mentor but almost immediately ran into trouble. The mentor asked Johnston, to staff up a New Jersey office in addition to shouldering her full-time responsibilities. Her mentor kept rejecting the candidates that Johnston brought to her, who were difficult to find in the first place.

來自馬里蘭州貝塞斯達的諮詢師考特尼o約翰斯頓，曾經的僱主是自己很長時間的導師，結果兩人的關係突然之間便陷入困境。這位導師要求約翰斯頓在全職工作之外，爲新澤西分公司招兵買馬。她的導師一直不同意約翰斯頓推薦的候選人，儘管當時尋覓這些候選人費盡了周折。

“I went through six months of interviewing 30 to 40 people a week because I’m trying to find the diamond in the rough I could afford,” recalls Johnston, who eventually had to hire a consulting team because it was impossible to find full-time candidates who met all the requirements.

約翰斯頓回憶道：“我在六個月內，每週面試30到40個人，因爲我一直在努力尋找符合公司經濟條件的‘璞玉’。”但最終，她還是聘請了一支諮詢團隊，因爲很難找到符合所有要求的全職員工。

Johnston returned to the office after finishing a large project, only to find that her boss had cancelled a meeting to plan the next project. She pulled Johnston aside. “She said, ‘You either quit or I’ll find a reason to fire you.’ “

在完成一個重大項目之後，約翰斯頓回到辦公室，結果發現老闆已經取消了下一個項目的規劃會議。她把約翰斯頓拽到一邊。“她說：‘要麼你自己辭職，要麼我找理由炒你魷魚。’”

Johnston felt doubly blindsided because she’d been given no warning and the woman had been her close mentor. “I will never do that to an employee,” she says. “I will never form that kind of friendship and not give them honest feedback.”

約翰斯頓感覺自己遭到了雙重打擊，因爲一方面，她事先沒有收到任何警告，另一方面，那個女人一直是她親密的導師。她說道：“我絕對不會對員工做這種事。我從來不會與下屬建立這種友誼，卻不給他們提供誠實的反饋。”