Warning Signs About Your Future Boss: A Checklist

About a year ago, Guy Kawasaki and I worked with the folks at LinkedIn to develop a ten-point checklist to help people detect whether their future boss is likely to be an asshole. -- things to look for during the interview process and when doing background checks on a future employer and company. I went back and look at this list and realized that, although it emphasizes asshole bosses, that many of these are also more general warning signs that your future boss isn't just a jerk, but is more broadly a crummy manager.

With so many people looking for new jobs, and almost every organization I know reorganizing, there are a lot of people looking for new bosses now or, as a result of a reorganization, considering multiple internal offers for a new job with a new boss.  I thought it was a good time to reprint the list. Note that this is also in Guy's new book Reality Check, with a host of other insights on this challenge (See Chapter 87).

As I wrote earlier on this blog, "Discovering the answers to these questions before you take a job can save you a lot of heartache."

 Here is our 10 point checklist.  Check-off each one that applies to your future boss. 

___1. Kisses-up and kicks-down: “How does the prospective boss respond to feedback from people higher in rank and lower in rank?” “Can you provide examples from experience?” One characteristic of certified assholes is that they tend to demean those who are less powerful while brown-nosing their superiors.

___2. Can’t take it: “Does the prospective boss accept criticism or blame when the going gets tough?” Be wary of people who constantly dish out criticism but can’t take a healthy dose themselves.        

___3. Short fuse: “In what situations have you seen the prospective boss lose his temper?” Sometimes anger is justified or even effective when used sparingly, but someone who “shoots-the-messenger” too often can breed a climate of fear in the workplace. Are co-workers scared of getting in an elevator with this person?  

___4. Bad credit: “Which style best describes the prospective boss: gives out gratuitous credit, assigns credit where credit is due, or believes everyone should be their own champion?” This question opens the door to discuss whether or not someone tends to take a lot of credit while not recognizing the work of his or her team.

___5. Canker sore: “What do past collaborators say about working with the prospective boss?” Assholes usually have a history of infecting teams with nasty and dysfunctional conflict. The world seems willing to tolerate talented assholes, but that doesn’t mean you have to.              

___6. Flamer: What kind of email sender is the prospective boss? Most assholes cannot contain themselves when it comes to email: flaming people, carbon-copying the world, blind carbon copying to cover his own buttocks. Email etiquette is a window into one’s soul.

___7. Downer: “What types of people find it difficult to work with the prospective boss? What type of people seem to work very well with the prospective boss?” Pay attention to responses that suggest “strong-willed” or “self-motivated” people tend to work best with the prospective boss because assholes tend to leave people around them feeling de-energized and deflated.

___8. Card shark: “Does the prospective boss share information for everyone’s benefit?” A tendency to hold cards close to one’s chest—i.e., a reluctance to share information—is a sign that this person treats co-workers as competitors who must be defeated so he or she can get ahead.                    

___9. Army of one: “Would people pick the prospective boss for their team?” Sometimes there is upside to having an asshole on your team, but that won’t matter if the coworkers refuse to work with that person. Use this question to help determine if the benefit of having the prospective boss on your team outweighs any asshole behaviors.

___10. Open architecture: “How would the prospective boss respond if a copy of The No Asshole Rule appeared on her desk?” Be careful if the answer is, “Duck!”

Scoring:

If you checked 3 or more, then it sounds like your future boss is a borderline asshole.

If you checked 5 or more, he or she sounds like a certified asshole.

If you checked more than 7, you've got a flaming bosshole on your hands -- and also someone who is incompetent in a host of other ways.

I would love to hear other tips about what has helped you avoid taking a job with an asshole boss -- or other warning signs that you wish you would have noticed before going to work for a demeaning creep.   

P.S. You can also use the Asshole Rating Self-Exam, or ARSE, to assess a future (or current boss) -- just have the people you are interviewing about the future boss complete with that person in mind (rather than themselves).

Comments

[GeekMBA360]

I'd like to add one more item to your check list -- this is my personal "golden rule" that worked again and again:

Never work for a boss who is always late.

You can learn a lot about a person just by observing whether he respects other people's time.

I have a post on my blog telling my story on this (http://www.geekmba360.com/?p=46)

cheers,
geekmba360

[Gerald - hyperkontext]

Translated your checklist to German and included it in a blog-post: Intranet-Knigge 2.0 für Arschkriecher (in english: Intranet Etiquette Manual 2.0 for Brown Nosers) a satire. And as contrast your translated checklist.

Link:
http://hyperkontext.at/weblog/artikel/intranet-knigge-20-fuer-arschkriecher/

[Ergoboy]

Sometimes the a-hole boss's boss hired the a-hole boss to do things that they didn't have the backbone for, such as trying to get a department back on track, or getting rid of troublesome employees. Not everyone can stomach getting their hands dirty. Also, please keep in mind that we all make the assumption that people are in positions of power because of their knowledge and skills. In many cases, people may be promoted to manager because of timing or politics.

[Rose]

I am curious about the character of the individual who hires and directly manages the asshole manager. I find that an even more compelling subject, particularly when the asshole boss's boss professes ignorance and actually excuses themselves for the resulting mayhem.

[Ergoboy]

Other tips which may help you avoid asshole bosses:

- Be wary of grandiose statements (e.g. "I am going to make this the best department on the East Coast!"). The boss may be a narcissist.

- Pay close attention to how much negative, sensitive, or personnel-related information the boss reveals about others. The boss may share personnel-related information about you with others behind your back, sabotaging your reputation.

- Be skeptical about charm. They are probably hiding something.

- Be wary of too much personal information or egotism (e.g. "My father died when I was 13, and I made it to this position all on my own doing...). Again, they may be a narcissist.

Narcissists make terrible bosses, so learn how to recognize one. A narcissist is not a person who likes to look at themselves in the mirror all the time. They are much more complicated and dangerous, especially if you have one as a boss. The good news is they do give off signs, but you have to know what to look for.

[Wally Bock]

That's a good checklist. I understand how you would get the answers in if you're interviewing for a job in your current company. My question is: How would you gather the information to make reasonable judgments if you're interviewing somewhere else?

[Thejo]

In my experience, another important trait is - how open minded is he or she in learning new things. I had a boss who told me that he "hates reading books" in the interview. Turned out he was the typical bosshole. As the adage goes, the more you learn, the more you realise how ignorant you are. I'm skeptical about the "born great leader". Like everything else, one needs to work at it to ensure they're not displaying any of the characteristics listed above. How is that ever going to happen without the effort to develop a different perspective? I've never worked for a good leader / boss who wasn't ready to work at it and actively solicited feedback.