5 Tell-Tale Signs Youre Working Under a Weak Leader

5 Tell-Tale Signs Youre Working Under a Weak Leader Think you might be working for a weak leader? Youre not alone if you have your fair share of painfully cringe-worthy management moments and youre feeling disengaged at work because of them.Only So what makes these leaders so weak and what can they be doing differently? Here are five surefire signs of an ill-fated manager, and how they can stop their employees from turning over because of them.1. They are inexperienced, just plain absent or both.If your manager doesnt have previous managerial experience, this can, of course, affect how they manage you and your team. Perhaps they come across like a weak manager because theyve never done it before. But perhaps because of your managers inexperience, when things go south, they hibernate in their offices and interact very little with the team. This is the sign of a weak leader.To combat this, your manager should be keeping an open mind to feedback and keeping the communication lines open . They should be readily available to hear what they can be doing better because, without constructive criticism, they wont improve.2. They dont respect your time, perhaps because they lack trust.Stanford University professor Bob Sutton explains in his book The Asshole Survival Guide that people are actually three times less likely to contribute at a high level when their baboes treat them poorly. This is because such disrespect makes motivation levels drop significantly. If your babo isnt respecting your time out of the office, after work hours, on weekends and on vacation, its likely that youll feel uninspired and, frankly, frustrated. Itll also make you feel distrusted that you wont get your work done.To combat this, managers should practice implementing covers for you when youre out of the office. This way they can respect your time off.3. They are a poor listener.If your manager does a lot of talking and very little listening, it may be because they dont care or have the time t o have a two-way conversation. Effective communication means being able to articulate your needs and also listening to the needs of otherbeis. A manager who cant do that is an ineffective communicator and, thus, a weak leader.To combat this, managers can practice active listening. They can call employees in for one-on-one meetings to make sure theyre all on the same page, and they can share questionnaires with feedback every now and then to make sure that theyre hearing their employees needs.4. They keep things under the rug.A weak manager isnt forthright with important information that can affect their employees. In a decade-long longitudinal study of 3,100 men, researchers found that workers risks of angina, heart attacks and even death increased along with work for controlling bosses who withhold information. Those who answered the survey statement, My boss gives me the information I need, negatively were the most likely to suffer from serious cardiovascular risk.To combat this, managers can make a greater effort in sharing important information and keeping transparent with their employees. Of course, not everyone needs to know everything, but its important that employees are kept abreast of matter that concern them.5. They dont give leistungspunkt where credit is due.A BambooHR employee survey asked more than 1,000 U.S.-based employees to rate 24 typical boss behaviors from totally acceptable to totally unacceptable. And the researchers found that the worst behavior a boss can have in the workplace istaking credit for one of their employees work. In fact, 63 percent of the surveys respondents agreed, or admitted that this was something over which they would consider quitting.To little surprise, women found it even more unacceptable when their bosses wrongly took credit, with 71 percent of them calling it the worst behavior a boss could have. This is likely because women, already, struggle to take credit for their own work. In a study published in the Perso nality and Social Psychology Bulletin, researchers Michelle C. Haynes and Madeline E. Heilman found that women are unlikely to take credit for their role in group work in mixed-gender settings, unless their roles are explicitly clear to outsiders.To combat this, managers can do a better job at giving credit where credit is do. They can start by making roles in group work explicit, which would make it easier for women to accept credit. And, even when womens roles arent explicitly obvious, managers can make an effort to acknowledge womens roles in their companies successes.--AnnaMarie Houlis is a feminist, a freelance journalist and an adventure aficionado with an affinity for impulsive solo travel. She spends her days writing about womens empowerment from around the world. You can follow her work on her blog, HerReport.org, and follow her journeys on Instagram her_report,Twitterherreportand Facebook.