Don’t be a jerk. Have you ever had a boss that was a jerk? Did you ever have to manage a supervisor who was a jerk? This is the topic of my new book. If you have a story you think might work, submit your story in the comments below. I will use the best examples to help illustrate best and worst practices for managers. If you contribute a story I’ll send you a free copy of the book when it is published, so send me your mailing address. By the way, if you don’t mind attribution let me know. If you want to remain anonymous let me know that as well. Don’t be a jerk. You can sum up the basics of great management in those four words. If you want to be a great leader, you’ve just read the entire instruction manual. I’ll repeat it: don’t be a jerk. If you are a quick study you can stop there. But, to paraphrase Voltaire, the problem with common sense is that it’s not all that common. This book teaches the average front-line manager how managers act like jerks. More important, it offers ideas on how to act different. Employees don’t leave companies, they leave managers. The vast majority of employees only experience their company management through their immediate supervisor. They almost never see anyone above that level. A friend of mine you’ll meet later puts it like this: you can tell the satisfaction of a group of employees as soon as you know the satisfaction of their immediate supervisor. Those other layers of management – all the way up to the CEO – are people employees read about in the paper or watch on “Squawk Box.” Their immediate boss IS the company. In this book we will look at a lot of examples to illustrate the same basic point: If you think your boss is a jerk, you’re not happy. If you like your boss, you like your company (even if there is no reason you should). Most managers struggle with a huge “knowing/doing” gap. The day-to-day pressures on today’s managers are profound. There is rarely enough time to get the urgent tasks done, much less the less the “important but not urgent” stuff you know you should be doing. If you are a boss read these stories very carefully. A lot of them you’ll laugh at. Occasionally you’ll read one you don’t think is that funny. Pay extra close attention to that one. To many this will sound to most like a huge oversimplification of a massive problem. It’s not. Almost every “boom” event I’ve ever dealt with as a labor and employment attorney, company executive or consultant started off with someone who acted like a jerk.
