Today's Technology for Tomorrow's Firm.
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30 August 2015 • www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com THE BLEEDING EDGE A Gallup survey from last year found that only one in ten bosses in America has any native talent for management, and only another two in ten could be good managers with a litle training and support. Tat leaves the overwhelming majority of bosses having litle or no management talent at all. Follow-up sur veys, including the Gallup 2015 sur vey of workers in America, found that people don't leave jobs – they leave their bosses. About half of the 7,200 adults surveyed said they have lef a job in order "to get away from their manager." Worse yet, it found that only about 30 percent are truly engaged in and commited to their jobs. These rest are ambivalent at best or disengaged at worst. Good managers are those who communicate with their employees, motivate people, overcome obsta- cles and make unbiased deci- sions for themselves and their team. Te fact that so few good managers ex ist can be chal ked up to three realities: The traits that m a k e a g r e a t entrepreneur can also make a bad boss. Entrepre- n e u r s t e n d , a c c o r d i n g t o a Forbes article, to be obstinate multitaskers who are generally not team players. Tey can be autocratic, perfec - tionist, temperamental and workaholic. Tough successful, they may have traits that would score as mental illness on standard psych evaluations. Not all are this way, or to any great degree. But the traits are there. Companies fail to choose the candidate with the right talent for the job 82% of the time. W hile many companies have talented managers right under their noses, Gallup found that few have the skills to identify and promote them. Te secret to geting a management position is more ofen based on a person's ability to ft into the culture than any management abilities. Tat is, bad bosses hire or promote other bad bosses. Good managers don't stay in bad companies. Good managers leave bad work environments, but bad ones stay. Good managers want to work with the most talented employees, and where their own talents will be recognized. The problem with bad bosses in companies of any size is a loss of pro- ductivity, which in turn leads to a loss of proftability. Tere is also the issue of losing the best and most talented workers – those professionals best positioned to innovate and create. Any company can be successful in the short term, driven by its founders and an innovative idea. Success in the long, term, however, requires a com- pletely diferent skill set that guiding a startup through its frst critical years. That is why so many founders are eventually relegated to a corner ofce so they do not interfere with continued growth. 3 0 A u g u s t 2 0 1 5 • w w w . C P A P r a c t i c By Dave McClure Dave McClure is a consultant and widely published writer on technology issues. He can be contacted at dave. mcclure@cpapracticeadvisor.com T he managers who are vital to the success of a business aren't just bad. The majority are shock- ingly bad, and you might be one of them. Are You a Bad Boss? 10 Signs That You Might Be