st 22 ok Difficult Bosses Know Your Boss Introduction, 23 February 2012 vil he 1 The first step in successfully dealing with difficult bosses is to study their behavior. The author created four difficult boss groups/categories (with 24 descriptors) – Over- controlling; Mean-spirited; Unqualified; and Retired-in-place. Although people may understand the different types of bosses, they need to adapt and adjust their own behavior to allow them, as professionals, to do their job. In most cases people do not get to pick their bosses, and each person has to perform regardless of the boss' behavior. In the author's 26 year military career, he had 42 different bosses; 40 were excellent, two were not. In his 25 year academic career, he had four chairs, three school directors, ten deans, three provosts, and three university presidents; with most performing in an average manner. There were three exceptions. People learn from both good and bad bosses. This chapter will focus on bad bosses. While serving as the Engineer Advisor stationed on the Island of Quemoy, the author, an Army Captain at the time, encountered his first experience with a difficult boss. Thirteen military personnel were housed in a Chinese-run "hostel,” which had a common dining room for all with assigned seating; everyone had to interact with each other every day, and the author had to learn to survive and work in very close quarters (a 24/7 environment) with this very difficult boss. When the Colonel (the boss) first arrived, the author was smoking a cigar. The Colonel's first words were, “Captain, I don't like cigar smoke.” Immediately, the author put the cigar out and never smoked in front of the Colonel again. After studying the Colonel's relationships with others, the author's first action was to make a resented people using his chair in the club, his toilet, and his seat at the movies. After list of the things that the Colonel appeared to "like" and "dislike.” For instance, the Colonel reviewing the list, the author worked at getting along with him during work hours, at nights, and on the weekends. Rule number one was, you can build more trust by listening than talking.” Soldiers away from home tended to drink too much, and that led the author to his second rule, “one drink per day,” which was critical to his being in control, to survive, and to have a successful military career. was difficult to work for. He said that most of his officers worked at getting along with him At the end of the 12-month tour, the Colonel said during an officers' call that he realized he 22-1 19 a 17 Business and Personal Ethics a) at Makes Life Easier Introduction, 20 January 2012 1 This chapter discusses personal and business ethics for professionals in the construction industry. Normally, our first introduction to ethics is in the home, with family, and our family's religious affiliation. This education continues in schools, clubs, athletics, and friendship groups. According to Jerry Eyink (2011), “Definitely the environment that people grow up in is a huge influence on their ethical character. We are victims of our environment." The author has seen this attitude in most of his students' papers over the years. Religion as well as the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts have also had a significant influence in the development of ethics. The Hassles exercises (Chapter 4), conducted for industry professionals and students, consistently show that a lack of ethics is a serious problem. For instance, in the bad boss surveys (Chapter 3), lack of ethics was ranked in the top five of bad boss traits. Herein lay the challenge for the author: How do you introduce ethics into a university course in an interesting way? Ethics appears to be a subject that both professors and students are reluctant to discuss. However, in an industry-driven accreditation process, there is a continuous push to have ethics education included in the university curricula. The significance of ethics is not new, and many discussions on this topic have taken place over the centuries. "You must be consistently fair and decent, in both the business and the personal side of life. Abraham Lincoln People receive their moral and ethical beliefs as children. In adulthood, these beliefs become a moral roadmap. Since individuals have varied upbringings, each has a different view on what is ethical. For some, ethics are based in religion; however, if they were not raised in a religious household, they may have had to look elsewhere for ethical encouragement. Many parents become their children's role models and, by default, their initial, ethical compasses. 17-1
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