Authority-hungry Managers, How HR Can Treat Them?
Most of us working in the corporate world must have dealt with or interacted with authority/power-hungry managers at one point or the other. Several behaviours typify these kinds of people, e.g., they may blame others for their mistakes, they like to take credit for others’ ideas and work, and often belittle those who do not support them or put down others who do not share their views.
Another common trait of such bosses is their need to maintain power and control through hoarding the “rights” to make important decisions in their organisation. Not only does this process disenfranchise employees and disempower managers on the frontlines, but it can have potentially significant and far-reaching consequences for the organisations.
What damage can authority-hungry bosses do?
The term “authority-hungry” may sound like a value-laden term. Furthermore, the hoarding of rights to make decisions tends to be most severe at the top of organisations — and this has potentially significant commercial implications for organisations. The most among these is that leaders who retain decision-making rights are willing to sacrifice their organisation’s expected earnings to retain control.
Being in a position of authority doesn’t make one a leader; it doesn’t add charisma. And what a lot of people don’t realize is the fact that when you pull rank to make sure people do what you want them to do, you lose some of that authority. They may very well follow your orders, but will do so grudgingly. So, the morale of this story is, if you have authority and want to keep it, use it sparingly, when it really matters and for the good of the whole.
Here are some tips for the HR leadership to help such managers either to improve or walk out of the organisaiton gracefully.
1. Talk to them
First thing first: As HR Leader, tell the authoritative manager that you’re concerned, but don’t be insulting. Stay away from personally attacking them, but be as honest as possible. It’s a fine line, but it can be done, Say: I’ve heard a lot of people are frustrated, partly with you. The easiest way to get them talking about changes is to accept some of the blame. Unless the leader and the team are working together, you’re as much at fault as he is.
First, attempt to have a meeting without their direct reports present, so they won’t feel like they’re getting into trouble. Talk to them one on one, hopefully, you’ll help them see where they can improve. They sometimes don’t realize how they’re coming across.
2. Offer Genuine Help
Invite that authority hungry manager as a peer over a coffee outside the workplace and do the following:
- Offer your candid comments confidentially as a friend rather than someone in the company. You can give him/her a reality check.
- Advise him/her to go for a sponsored or a self-funded course on real team building.
- Encourage him/her to take his/her team out for lunch / dinner or a team retreat. This will help solve a lot of internal issues that can be discussed outside the workplace in an informal setting.
3. Rehearse
As a good colleague from HR who offers help to his/her professional friend, one must be prepared how to do that. This requires practice and precisely what and how to say. Before you confront this person, run it by someone neutral who you can trust. Practice what you’re going to say to make sure your tone isn’t putting them on the defensive. Don’t make it a personality attack.
We must ensure that we have specific examples, not a laundry list of what they’ve done wrong, but examples where in this situation we believe we’re ineffective as an organization. There has to be some things that this person is doing well, and we can identify these as well.
4. No Gossip
We must also ensure that we keep our feedback about the colleague in question to ourselves only. Else we will damage reputation and image of the both. Many times, we don’t realize the potential damage that can be caused by talking about the group outside of a constructive process for dealing with issues. It is appropriate to talk about disagreements, but one needs to have a process to deal with that. If it’s not done, it can hurt the reputation of both the parties.
5. The Final Decision
When all the talking is done and when one starts feeling that s/he isn’t getting the right signals, as a last resort, start being firm. Prepare the ‘authority hungry manager’ to face the final consequences i.e., ‘shape up or you’re out’, This normally happens in the value driven organisations where empathy and teamwork are the top of the company’s core values and there is zero-tolerance on rude, agitated and control freak leaders.
About the Author
Muhammad Sajwani is the Founder and Managing Director of Evolve HR which aims at transforming, enriching and evolving Human Capital of Pakistan, Evolve HR thrives in challenging assumptions that hinder organisational aspirations, by creating innovative solutions that yield maximum impact, scalability & benefit to a wider base of stakeholders. As a Business Coach and Organisational Consultant, Sajwani knows how to combine business insights with people insights to transform organisations and put them on the path to growth.
