Bad bosses are the entrepreneur's raison d'être. According to Monte Enbysk, "a 2001 study involving some 20,000 exit interviews found that the No. 1 reason people leave jobs is 'poor supervisory behavior.' In other words, bad bosses."
Bad bosses are everywhere, and that made for a pretty effective recruiting tool back when I worked for the sales company. During presentations, people often said something negative about their work or specifically about their bosses. We would repeat what they said, then ask, "are you tired of working for someone who doesn't know as much as you?" The responses would be: yes, but it's okay; oh, it's not so bad; *%$#!! right I am!
Those are the ones we would try to recruit. The appeal of working for yourself, of not having a boss, is exciting. And for those few motivated and eager enough to do it, it is powerful.
John,
I too used this approach when I recruited back in my corporate days. However, once I became a Management Trainer, I eventually came to realize that Mavericks usually lacked the empathy to be good supervisors.
Some of the same people I liked when I recruited them, turned out to be some of the most despicable characters in my training classes.
Of course, many of these people went on to choice assignments, but they also caused friction within their Work Units.
These Mavericks may have been good for the company (at least in the short run)but they caused a lot of problems for their employees and the HR Department. So, whether or not they were good hires is very debatable.
Posted by: Jack Cunningham | September 7, 2006 11:22 PM | Permalink to Comment