Many play the ‘If I were in charge’ game

Editor’s note: More than Work previously ran in The Spokesman-Review on Saturday. Because of its focus on the workplace, it has been moved to Wednesday, when readers are more likely to be thinking about the kinds of workplace issues Tim McGuire addresses.

An executive complained to me that a small number of employees showed no respect for leadership and questioned every action and every motive. The word “disrespect” was used and so was “hostile.”

When I hear complaints like this I usually assume the doctrine of reciprocity is in play. If a worker is treated poorly they will behave poorly. If an employee is treated well they will usually behave admirably. I have written before about leaders who treat people badly and then are shocked to find employees disengaged and performing poorly.

There is another phenomenon often present in workplaces. Call it “coveting the boss’s job.” It is the belief, either stated or unstated, that, “I can do my boss’s job better than he can and all my behavior is going to prove that point.” Second-guessing, constant backbiting, passive-aggressive behavior, and an absolute refusal to change or follow, are all symptoms of this common workplace malady.

The verb “coveting” is used intentionally because Judaism, Islam and Christianity all have rules against coveting a neighbor’s goods. Yet, many people of faith think nothing of disrupting a workplace because they covet the boss’s job.

I often used to struggle with that emotion in the workplace and sometimes maybe I could have done the job better than my boss. But many more times I simply did not understand and appreciate all the issues. My problem was that I used only my lens and failed to look at problems through the lens of the boss.

When you mutter to yourself or, much worse, say out loud that you could do better than your boss consider this four-part test.

Walk in the boss’s shoes: What kind of pressures and responsibilities would you feel if you were in the top job? Explore whether you appropriately respect all the stakeholders the boss has to serve. The boss has to make the owner happy, he has to serve customers and he has to keep employees like me satisfied. Could you do that? Would you want to do it?

To successfully walk in the boss’s shoes you have to genuinely attempt to understand the goals he has been given and the parameters he has to work within. Those parameters can’t be arbitrarily changed just because you want them changed and the boss probably can’t change them, either. Attempt to appreciate the goals the boss is trying to accomplish. Would you have the same goals? The answer is usually yes.

Decide on your solution to the problem: Make a rule for yourself that you will never criticize (even silently) the boss’s solution unless you’ve developed your own solution and you are willing to carefully analyze it. Is it really better or does it simply suit your self-interests? Remember, when you develop your solution you have to use the same resources in the same environment as the boss does.

If I were the boss, what would I think of my behavior? I always found this was an effective question to ask myself. Often I realized that I’d want to throttle someone who did to me what I was doing to my boss. Sometimes a written contract between boss and employee about the behavior each should expect of the other is an effective way to go.

Hold the boss to no higher standard than you can: It is easy for us to demand that our boss be scrupulously honest, totally candid, always transparent and never secretive. We love to demand complete loyalty, singular focus on our needs and total service to our interests. Meanwhile, we seem to think it’s just fine if we’re self-interested, cheating jerks. That’s not fair. We should hold our leaders to high standards, but then we must meet those high standards, too.

Tip for your search: Privately walk in your boss’s shoes this coming week. Watch her actions and carefully consider what you would do in each situation. We’re not talking about what you think she should do, but rather what YOU would do in the same situation. There’s a huge difference.

Resource for your search: “The Power of Followership” by Robert Kelley (Doubleday-Currency, 1992)