by Manuela Müller | Jun 26, 2019 | Thoughts on Team
It is hard to imagine the social enterprise and venture capital ecosystem without cross-cultural teams. In our work with startups and organizations across East Africa we interact with multicultural teams on a daily basis: Local and foreign founders, team members from different East African countries, local and foreign investors and board members, international fellows and consultants, you get the picture!
While the day to day in the office with each other can sometimes be puzzling or draining, this diversity is an incredible opportunity to build innovative, winning and competitive models.
There are many reasons to invest into building a balanced culture and help teams leverage their diversity!
First of all, working in a multi-cultural environment is a huge selling point for this generation! Organizations that succeed in building a fun, well-functioning diverse work environment are very attractive employers and are likely to attract and retain top talent!
Also, you can increase your company’s ability to innovate and create products that last and faster and better problem solving by representing views and insights from a wide range of stakeholders into decisions. Leveraging different life and professional background improves business results in the short, mid and long-term.
There is ample research showing the business opportunity diverse teams have, but also the challenges associated with diversity, such as inconsistent norms and assumptions, which might reduce collaboration.
We asked around: How do different styles, beliefs and concepts shape workplace interaction?
We discussed this question in our session at the Sankalp Africa Summit 2019. We started the workshop by asking participants to share experiences where intercultural aspects caused tension and reduced productivity.
Communication styles always comes up: What one person calls an animated conversation, someone else might find an aggressive shouting match. Speaking loudly and talking over each other is perfectly normal and welcome in some countries but signifies lack of respect and decency to others. If contradicting the CEO in front of a group if they make a suboptimal suggestion increases your worth to the company in some places, speaking up to your boss can get you fired elsewhere. Even the preference of written vs. face-to-face communication is raised as an area of tension.
Some of these beliefs go deep to shape workplace interaction:
- “People at my workplace tend to be more accepting of advice and guidance from expat colleagues, sometimes completely ignoring ‘local’ contribution altogether”.
- “My boss keeps asking me to speak up. I am very soft spoken, and I know that he considers me less confident or even clever because of that. But in our culture, we believe that people who talk less are wiser! Equally, he insists on me keeping eye contact with my audience, yet when I grew up that was a sign of disrespect.”
- “The concept of taking leave is very different here, for example, someone asking for (often immediate) compassionate leave of a family member is hard to question. Where I come from, there is an unspoken commitment to always finish work first.”
- “Our junior team members do not ask questions to their superiors, even when specifically given the opportunities in team forums!”
It’s easy to imagine that some of these hesitations will affect an individual, a team and therefore organization performance.
Make it work through self-awareness and designing systems!
- What on earth do you mean with systems? We think that in no fast-growing and ambitious company should decision making, communication style, information flow, and management and hiring approaches rely on any one culture or an individual’s preferences. Instead, teams should come up with agreements and build the culture and standardized approaches that will truly serve their mission.
- Do so by pressing ‘pause’ if faced with a business challenge before jumping to action and evaluate the situation: Identify assumptions you’re using about how “things are done”, and think about what the ideal approach would be for a given situation.
- Relying on diverse input to designing these systems might take longer in terms of initial design (imagine simply typing out a leave policy on your laptop vs. designing it in a team conversation) but is much more likely to be robust, a winning strategy AND implemented by everyone.
- Keep it lean: Pick a pressing and contentious topic, gather input, then come up with a simple draft and agreement. Communicate that the agreement is open to change based on experience.
An illustrative example: Peter talks a lot in team meetings, to the extent that it becomes a dialogue between the boss and Peter. They take a big product decision together that pretty immediately backfires on the company. Anna takes the boss aside after a team meeting and shares her observations. She mentions that she personally prefers thinking things through before voicing her thoughts, and requests that the main discussion points be shared on email one hour to the team meeting. She also mentions that other team members may have thoughts, but feel shy to voice them in a group that’s seemingly in agreement. The boss then starts a new habit where at the end of a team meeting he invites worries, concerns and questions to be raised and reserves five minutes in the agenda for it, which results in a few moments of silence at first. But soon, meetings become more lively, and after a few months, the five-minute rule is abandoned again, because criticism is now raised directly in the moment.
Another crucial piece of diverse teams is cultivating and continually growing self-awareness in every team member. With high self-awareness, you’ll be able to take a nuanced approach in situations, listen better and communicate more clearly. Therefore you contribute to better decisions that will result in action.
In developing self-awareness, lead by example: After becoming more aware of what drives you, and communicating more clearly, you can ask and inspire others to do the same. Debrief situations with yourself through self-reflective questions:
- Why am I feeling and acting the way I am? Which written, unwritten or self-prescribed rules am I following in this moment?
- Which assumptions am I basing my thoughts and decisions on? Could those be wrong? What am I unaware of in this moment that ought to be considered?
- Whenever I feel in disagreement about someone’s opinion or behaviour, how can I invite and facilitate dialogue? What do I need to share about where I am coming from? What do I need to know about where someone else is coming from and how can I show that I’m truly open to understanding them?
Self-awareness is closely linked with intercultural competence, a crucial comptence for all teams that want to succeed in business. Four aspects are linked to intercultural competence: knowledge about different cultures, an attitude of openness, readiness to interact and learn, ability to show empathy and tolerance and willingness and ability to change own perspective.
To develop these in yourself and the team, tap resources like trainings, workshops, webinars, videos and online resources, conversation & self-reflection guides!
And remember to make it fun! At edge, we hosted culture day recently, where team members present a culture other than their own, values, dress and food included. (I represented Pakistan which I’ve also found fascinating and that is in stark contract to my German fatherland 😉 )
Would you like support in building your own organization culture that truly serves your mission or want trainings to increase self-awareness or intercultural competence in your team?
Reach out to us! We look forward to hearing from you!
PS: Part 2 this series is coming! Another important question raised was how to avoid bias during recruitment, especially if you’re assessing candidates across cultures. For example, a manager feels more drawn to job applicants who provide answers quickly to everything, as this is closer to behaviour expected in their own culture.
We will share more insights in another article soon!
by Martha Karimi | May 15, 2019 | Thoughts on Team
Hiring for culture fit as you grow: Game of Thrones lessons.
For the sake of all GoT fans out there (If you are not a fan, you are probably already fed up with the unfamiliar spoilers and endless chit chats in your office lately): All factors held constant, regarding the script changes, the unlikely surprises and twists and the drama we anticipate that we are not getting, what really does it take to conceptualize and create a show that makes working professionals wake up at 4 am to stream live? Because they just can’t live with the anxiousness of not knowing? Can we take a moment of silence to admire the minds who dream of creating movements that inspire generations across the world? It’s the same spirit we see in groundbreaking movies, politicians, music artists and so on.
And yet sometimes this spirit may not always be replicable or sustainable as a show grows, as an artist evolves, as the interests of the consumers evolve. Why?
Now think about your company, what would it take to build a workplace that staff can call their 2nd home? And actually mean it? A place of shared values, enthusiasm and aspirations? A place where your staff can’t wait to do it all over again tomorrow? And how do you make sure that each and every new member of this movement adds value and aligns with the same spirit? And when things evolve you all evolve together?
Hiring for culture as your company grows is probably going to be one of the toughest team battles you’ve encountered yet. Without caution, the temptation to compromise hoping to develop the missing values in the future in exchange for rising business demands slowly becomes your daily choice. And before you know it, everyone is asking; ‘What happened to this place?’’ ‘’We used to love working here back then’’.
So what can you do to ensure every single new hire is a gem to the team?
Build a strong value based recruiting process.
Your culture is defined by the key values that need to be lived every second for business success. Do you know what these are? If not here is a cheat sheet. It’s ok if your list has 20, now narrow it down to the 5 main ones that your business needs to thrive then inculcate this in your hiring process.
Some best practices out there:
- Assess for culture fit/values at application stage!
You can share your values deck at application stage and ask candidates to clearly illustrate how they have lived these values in their past working experiences. We did this once, and believe me or not, some candidates innovated their own values, did not bother to read the deck!
- Run value based interviews.
Here you want to assess how candidates engage with your values. How do they connect these to business outcomes? What personal challenges do they foresee in them living those values? What will hold them back? What about these values spark their curiosity? Listen for depth and breadth in everything. The higher the level of introspection and engagement the closer you are to the right fit.
- Cross check with your background checks.
Does your background checklist of topics include how the candidate has lived certain values? You know what to do. Also, ask for concrete examples!
Your management team breathes and lives your values.
If you can get this right, you are halfway there. As you grow, your managers become your default employer brand ambassadors, thus staying aligned is key.
Some ideas:
- Monthly chats revolving around topics such as – how have you been living XYZ value this month? What was challenging about this value? You will be surprised how these conversations can be a foundation for deep team conversations, learning from each other and even evolving and re-defining your values as business evolves.
- Every opportunity matters! Something not going well with the team? What about that could be pointing out to your value system? Use every moment to bring your management team back to the big picture of your values and why they matter for business.
- Mid and annual management team reviews. Spend half a day talking about your company culture, what is changing for good and for worse. Then, iterate!
- Use Reward and Recognition to acknowledge individuals who have demonstrated certain values in the most significant ways.
- Define your management team spirit and brand. How do you want the world out there to speak of your management team? Are your values ingrained in there?
Decentralize hiring – now this is CRUCIAL!
First, it’s necessary. If you are hiring frequently and in high numbers, your HR and managers are obviously overwhelmed, and right there is a significant loophole.
If your whole team including junior staff has already been having enough culture and value conversations, then they are quite accurate on what it takes to thrive in your organization.
How about you consider building an internal hiring team that truly understands your culture? They could be from any department and they fully understand your culture fit criteria. Plug them in as key players and informants in the recruiting process and watch magic happen! In addition, they also get to feel the ownership of growing with you!
Why don’t you block some weekly time in your calendar for culture? Try out some of these tips and let us know how it goes. We want to feature your success story in the next blog. And your failure story as well!
by Fabianna Mueti | Apr 10, 2019 | Thoughts on Team
Have you heard the story of the PERFECT candidate who was hired because of their supposedly great performance in past roles, only for them to turn out to be non-performers once hired?
The hiring manager then wonders: “What could have gone wrong in our assessment process? Or did we not onboard the person well?”
How can we really find out about a candidate’s past performance and behaviours? Even the best skill test and behaviour-based interview can’t tell you everything! In conversation with our clients we realize that while reference and background checks are deemed important, many managers don’t actually believe that they can work.
We suggest you ditch your old-school reference approach and commit to getting real information through thoughtful background and reference checks, which you fully integrate into the overall screening and assessment process.
Three reasons why your approach to reference checks is not working:
1) You’re using the SAME template/questions for EVERY role you hire for. By doing this, you are assuming that the criteria for assessing all roles is the same. Every assessment stage should be tailored to the role you’re hiring for; including the background checks.
For example, you can’t ask about the strengths of an Accounts Assistant the same way you’ll ask for those of an Operations Manager. Make the questions specific to what you want to hear to ensure you get tangible information about past performance.
Generic questions such as “What where their strengths in their last role?” will not get you far. Instead ask something like: “How did their strengths improve the departments performance? What were the results achieved?”
2) You’re calling the WRONG people. References listed on the candidate’s CV are no
t necessarily going to give you the information you want. Cases of ingenuity during this stage are not uncommon. A candidate may list down their colleagues or friends as references. If you don’t conduct due diligence, you’ll likely fall for this. You’ll talk to someone who sanitises their weaknesses in past roles and think the person did no wrong. We recommend that you speak to people the candidate truly reported to, or other individuals who will give you a genuine, honest and critical assessment.
3) You aren’t actually doing it. You have let good charms displayed by a candidate during the selection process trick you into thinking you don’t have to do reference checks. “This person is very authentic.”
How we leverage reference checks so our clients make informed hiring decisions at edge
- We corroborate information gathered from the different referees to gain a final assessment. Did the same strengths and weaknesses come up consistently? Can you see the professional growth over the years? Is there one negative outlier, that would make you probe further?
- We customise the process for every role!
- We make use of the relationships you have and conduct informal checks. Find intermediaries who can connect you to a manager in their past company, even if it’s not their supervisor. Make use of the “I know a guy, who knows a guy who knows a guy” method. Go a step further and use LinkedIn to identify people to speak to. Only in an informal background check may you find out that John steals people’s food from the fridge, soo; not a great fit for your organization culture. Bye bye, John! On to the next one! Especially when digging about a candidate’s CURRENT job performance, you have to tread carefully, so speak to people who won’t compromise their job security by telling on them.
- We are methodical in our approach: Ensure to speak to at least 1-2 people about their last three jobs each. Include direct supervisors, as they are a great bet at providing you with the information you require. Also include other key informants, such as managers of other departments, peers or HR managers in your list of people to interview.
- We pay attention to red flags: At the end of the day, you want the person you hire to be a person that upholds your organization’s values, integrity and is a good culture fit.
Red flags you shouldn’t ignore during the process
- Referees giving brief answers, taking their sweet time to return the forms, or not returning them at all. Once we sent forms to three former direct managers, but only one returned the form (and she put LITTLE effort in answering our questions and had written N/A to two KEY questions). That should tell you that their former supervisors don’t have a lot of positive things to say about them, if at all.
- A candidate not providing you recent references. Imagine a scenario where you’re considering someone for a managerial position, and they have a total of 15 years experience. You expect them to provide contacts from their recent five years, but instead they give you those of junior jobs. While a candidate may be worried about their current employer being aware of their job search, after conversation with the candidate, they should provide recent references even if it’s peer managers, key clients, HR department etc. If you don’t see willingness to dialogue: red flag!
- Reference forms that look fake. Yup! You read that right. How do we know, you ask? Well, we put two and two together when we receive forms where the writing style, formatting and language is EXACTLY the same. Or So yes; collusion between a candidate and their referees does happen. Phone calls to verify content are also crucial.
- And the last one: Candidate seems reluctant for you to speak to a former manager. Certain behaviours just make you wonder: “My supervisor moved abroad, and I can’t reach them.” or “I don’t think you should speak to this person, they won’t be able to say much about me.” Here you can choose: Try to reach the referee yourself (through LinkedIn or professional networks) or simply disqualifying the candidate based on lack of references.
As you can see, we’re really passionate about making this part of recruitment work!
We’d love to hear some of the crazy experiences you have encountered while conducting reference or background checks!
And don’t hesitate to get in touch with us to discuss how you can make your process more effective and ensure you make the right hires!
by Martha Karimi | Mar 20, 2019 | Thoughts on Team
You have lousy managers
Hi there.
Take yourself on a managers evaluation date night. Buy yourself your favorite drink. Sit there quietly and ask yourself honestly: What is the experience my employees have in their day to day in their teams and with their managers? Why does no one want to stay? Do you know?
Let it sink in. What are you doing about it?
Are there skills your managers may be lacking to lead, manage and inspire their teams? Could there be personality clashes you are unaware of?
Borrow a piece of paper if you didn’t bring your notebook. Write the 10 things that define what type of managers your company needs for people to stay.
Go to office tomorrow, start inculcating these traits one by one.
And if you don’t know what to do, we have many ideas!
Your website is uninspiring…
… and lacks adequate information to inspire your ideal talent. Top talent is picky. They want to be associated with a strong brand. They want their experiences to matter. They have standards for how each experience connects to their big picture. Also, it’s 2019 and empowered job seekers have a say on who they work with.
So yes: The first place they go to is your website. They are looking for how you are telling the story of your work. How you talk about your team. Can they learn a thing or two about how it is to work with you? How much effort have you put into portraying your worth?
You simply don’t care and everyone knows
If you know Nairobi well, then you know what “Nairobi hapa” means. You cannot hide in this city. Sooner or later, your dirty workplace laundry will be out in the streets. And once it’s out there, who will apply to your company really?
On the contrary you could decide to care.
And what do we mean?
Simply see your employees as humans. The same load of personal problems you go through they do too. The same strong face you have been wearing for the last 2 years, they have been carrying it for a decade maybe.
To care means:
- You listen to their needs and offer time to help them navigate them. Sometimes a simple 10-minute brainstorm will elevate pounds of emotional weight that is affecting their productivity.
- Sharing your own personal struggles helps them remember you too are not a super human.
- And maybe sometimes give them an unexpected day off because they worked too much last week.
- Or you let them work from home when they are sick-ish; not too sick to not work, yet if they went to the office, they’d get worse.
- Or you just show up with small surprise gifts they love because you have taken time to observe and learn their interests.
Do the simple stuff. Then watch what happens.
by Manuela Müller | Feb 5, 2019 | Thoughts on Team
We recently hosted a conversation with professionals about what their workplaces could do to improve the employee experience, one line keeps coming up: Give us our leave days!
Wait, what? You’re not given leave days as per employment laws?
Whether you nurture your introvert on the couch, rediscover gardening and arts, or you are a travel junkie discovering new places, we all deserve that amazing feeling of rest, adventure and of low stress, pressure and external demands.
Yet, a large number of employees we spoke to experience negative feelings when thinking about their leave days:
“It took only two days this whole year”
“It always feels like I am begging when I ask my supervisor!”
“My leave was not approved (or first approved, then recalled)…”
Most Kenyan employers know that they are obliged to give a minimum of 21 leave days per annum within the legal frameworks (some neighbouring countries give more, so do some employers), yet in reality most employees feel fatigued in the second half of the year, and rack up many leave days at the end of the year.
We also heard from some employers that they find leave procedures frustrating and tedious: Employees don’t apply for leave until October, others hand in leave requests last minute, or staff come back from leave with even less energy.
In the knowledge economy, taking leave can feel like a double-edged sword
Without rest and recovery, you risk your biggest resource: Your ability to concentrate, be creative, strategize, have convincing conversations, draw insights and remember important things in the right situation.
On the other hand, when people go on leave, they take their networks, knowledge, insights and brain with them. We all have tales of projects that failed while the person who initiated them, was on the beach, receiving frantic calls while they should be off. Some firms are technically closed for business, if a senior employee is off.
So how can you strike a balance and build a culture where performance and restoration go hand in hand?
We advocate for regular and consistent conversations about wellness and personal effectiveness in the team.
- For example you can strengthen people’s awareness about what helps them perform, what makes them more or less effective through self-reflection and peer circles.
- Support the ideation and development of healthy and effectiveness habits of all types in your team, from the basics like breaks between meetings and lunch away from the laptop to home-office policies and fruit baskets.
- If as a manager you are truly okay with someone going home an hour early because they’re tired, or prompt people to take a day off after a hectic period, you will be much more credible when you start discussing leave days (whether you end up approving or re-negotiating a leave request).
Things you can do now for a healthier and more effective 2019
- Lead by example! Plan leave, organize yourself, and then: switch off until you experience the power of rest!
- Don’t have someone in charge of leave management? Appoint someone! Even better: Make it a well-understood system that runs by its own and promotes people’s personal satisfaction and well-being.
- Have employees hand in their leave requests now. Then use a well-understood system to distribute the precious weeks around mid-year between the employees: Some departments map out leave among them by consensus, others use a first come first serve policy, others reserve school holidays for parents.
- Make sure everyone takes a real break latest at the half-year point. Make it a policy if you have to, but a meaningful conversation often does better, especially in small teams. Also discuss whether one week provides meaningful rest in your profession!
- Talk through the responsibilities that come with taking leave. Have people prepare handover manuals and together set realistic timelines for handover procedures. This includes for example people listing , starting to hand over their work to their colleagues at least 3 days before going on leave, and briefing them at least 1 week prior.
The new year has just started, but you can never start planning for leave days in your team too early.
We want to hear your opinions and experiences!
What scares you when you think of your employees being away for long?
by Evelyn Pearson | Jul 10, 2018 | Career Happiness, Succeeding where you are, Thoughts on Team
Why do people quit jobs? Many business leaders believe that “good people have options” or that “millennials don’t commit for long”.
To build a growing and performing organization, we need to dig deeper and understand why people leave. We asked over thirty Nairobi professionals about their experiences with bosses that made them quit. We were shocked hearing what people had to say – these are true horror stories:
The Blaming and Defensive Boss:
“I quit. It was the worst experience. My boss was a micro-manager, played the blame game, and overall there was a lack of leadership by management in the company.”
“My boss was very defensive of her actions and always blamed the other party”.
The Boss Who Held Me Back:
“She will not let me go for professional training! She has no college degree, she hates people with degrees”.
The Boss Who Expects Too Much:
“Being thrown into the deep end work with tasks that I had no knowledge of, yet my boss expected the best outcome or performance!”
“She would always delegate huge tasks last minute with important partners then would expect results without me having any experience”
“Very mean. Asked me to babysit for her autistic child with no prior idea of how.”
The “Bully” Boss (30% of the respondents’ bosses fall here!):
“Mood swings, she terrified everyone once she was having a bad day”
“I was called a ‘mental case’ after I challenged the opinion of my boss”
The ‘Sleep With Me and Get A Job’ Boss:
“I once had a boss who wanted to give me a job only if I accepted to sleep with him. I couldn’t believe it since he was a family friend”
“He asked me out and then didn’t call me for jobs after I stopped going out with him”
Dear bosses,
Are you one of the above?
Even if you’re not, it’s important for you to know what employees go through out there and to be empathetic. This means that you have to actively and consciously display the behaviours and values of a proper and humane boss. Some of your behaviours might be interpreted as abusive, even if you wouldn’t want to be called as such. So below our suggestions for being a well-meaning boss.
1) What does this mean for you as a boss when you handle job seekers?
- Always hold interviews in an office and only during the day. Make no suggestive remarks, jokes and compliments, especially towards the opposite sex. Avoid looking ‘sleezy’ at all costs and remain professional at all times. If you can’t keep it together when hiring, have a second interviewer joining you. Also, strongly consider going for counselling, as this matter is likely to affect you in how you manage people as well.
- With new hires, be very clear about certain expectations of the job that are beyond the typical work environment, for example: working hours, weekend work, travel and any specific physical and mental exposure the job brings: Is it especially hot or cold? Are there lots of failure situations based on the type of business you run? What type of pressure should they expect from clients, the team, investors and even you? New hires should be aware of this information when making their choice to accept your offer, to avoid any surprises in the future.
2) What implications does this have for relationships and culture in your office?
- Have an open door policy where people can come and ask you any questions or offer their opinions. Give coaching and advice on people’s work when they need or want it.
- Steer clear of ‘Blame Games’ and ‘Guilt Tripping’ at all costs. I repeat, don’t look for culprits and who to blame if something goes wrong, at least not in the heat of the moment. Instead, be solution-oriented, if a project went off-track put all energy (your own and the team’s) towards getting it back on track. The time for feedback and a debrief is later, when people are more calm and everyone (including yourself) is less likely to be defensive and aggressive.
3) What does it mean for your ideal management approach?
- Take care of your own physical health and mental well-being. Take time out if you feel that you are getting to the edge. Avoid anger outbursts and mood swings in the office.
- Make performance expectations clear through conversations with each individual you manage, and put them in writing.
- Give corrective feedback in private. Simply point out the behaviour you need to start or stop, but avoid passing judgement.
- Do all you can to gather honest feedback from your team. If no-one gives you feedback or honest feedback, you might have a problem. Make sure to schedule these feedback mechanisms on a regular basis to elude tensions building up in the office.
- For more tips on being an approachable boss and shaping your management approach, take a look at our blog post, “how to get your people to focus on their work”
Dear Job Seekers and Talent,
We were overwhelmed by hearing what you go through at work. In reality, many of you need the salary, so you might choose to stay even if you are truly unhappy in your job and with your manager. We encourage you to take charge of your own experience and prevent yourself from getting stuck in the victim mind-set as it can affect your performance, CV, and even your mental health.
Here are a few considerations:
- Leave when you have to. In the end, your mental and physical well-being are very important and matters more than your job.
- Know your rights when it comes to salary, sexual harassment, leave, working hours etc. Read the Employment Act and attend forums where you can learn more from seasoned HR professionals and labour lawyers. All HR policies need to be in compliance with current labour laws. If there are no HR policies in your organization, then the labour laws will prevail.
- Despite your frustrations, ensure you stay professional. Focus on bringing results and ensure that people besides your boss see your performance, attitude and skills (clients, colleagues, partners, suppliers etc.). Once you apply for new jobs, you will need recommendations, references, and a CV listing your results and achievements.
- In the same line, getting a new job might take time. As you’re in this impossible job and you feel that you are not growing professionally, remember that no interviewer will be impressed by hearing that your boss undermined you and therefore you had no results in a whole year. Think through how else you can position your profile towards potential employers. For example, you can run projects and build achievements in the volunteering space, or you can enrol onto online courses to sharpen your skills.
- How can you manage upwards and possibly turn around you and your boss’s relationship? Schedule meetings with your boss, report to him about your work and achievements, prepare and run the agenda if your manager won’t do it, clarify your role and what is expected of you. Take minutes of what was discussed and share this via email with your boss to ensure there is a track record of conversations. Communicate upwards if projects are delayed in advance to avoid an angry blow-up. We have a lot more tips on our blog post ‘Scared of approaching your boss, 5 tips to make communicating with your boss easier’ read it here.
- Always remember, you have options, you are not trapped! Stay positive, surround yourself with people with a ‘can do’ attitude. Think creatively through your options, whether it’s employment, self-employment or free-lancing. Consider how you can manage your personal budget better in order to save up money. Sometimes an extended leave can help you see your options more clearly. Think about what’s best for you not just professionally but also for your mental well-being and happiness.
If you are currently in a bad boss situation at work and you’re thinking of leaving or switching careers entirely, sign up for our Career Masters Program. This program will give you the skills and the confidence to take bolder steps towards your dreams in life.
We would love to hear your thoughts and opinions about these boss horror stories. If you’ve had an experience of your own with a bad boss, please share your story with us in the comments!
Also, you can increase your company’s ability to innovate and create products that last and faster and better problem solving by representing views and insights from a wide range of stakeholders into decisions. Leveraging different life and professional background improves business results in the short, mid and long-term.