How to ID a bad boss: Single point of failure all the time

Single Point of Failure and Managers

Wrote once about the (probably not so) hidden cost of having a bad manager. Here’s another thing I thought of in the car ride back from therapy this morning. The following doesn’t apply to my current manager, but does apply to a bunch of people I’ve had before in life.

Are y’all familiar with single point of failure?That basically means one thing goes wrong — a Word document doesn’t open, a button on a landing page doesn’t click through properly, someone receives a memo and probably shouldn’t have — and someone automatically assumes that every single thing about the process is now wrong. 

Single point of failure: If a tiny aspect is broke, da whole damn thing be broke. (It has different meanings by industry/vertical, yes.)

If you ever want to know the simple answer to the question “Do I Have A Bad Manager?” you can Google it and read about 12,993 worthless “thought leader” pieces. Or you can do this:

  • Look back at the past month
  • See how many “single point of failure” situations you can count
  • If it’s over 4 (once a week), you have a bad manager.

But why, Ted? WHY WOULD THAT BE?

 

Ted Bauer