Welcome to The Crass Captain™ Blog and Website
The Crass Captain is your worst nightmare at work. He can take the obvious form of the screamer that intimidates and fires people at every whim. However, he can also engage in more insidious forms of poor leadership. He can be a micro-manager that insists on the Nth degree of policy, resulting in the inability of his people to make their own decisions and pursue real business results. He can also be a push-over that avoids addressing conflict and, even worse, poor performance. He can be so ineffective that he is unable to provide support for the efforts of his subordinates. He can be a leader that “knows everything” and won’t listen or a leader who prefers to place blame for problems instead of solving them. He may also fail to provide training and development to his subordinates and may not bother recognizing a job well done. He may play favorites and engage in manipulative behavior. He may make changes without letting people understand the purpose or the company goals being supported by the changes. Finally (but this is not a complete list, by any means), he may fail to provide the people with clear direction and goals to enable them to prioritize their efforts.
In short, a bad boss isn’t always a wicked human being. Many times, the Crass Captain is just a lousy leader. Thanks for visiting. Please have fun with the topics here and, by all means, share your stories. We’d love to hear them.
The pronoun he is used generically in articles throughout the site. It is important to note that women can be equally ineffective leaders when employing dysfunctional behaviors.
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Written by Christine Casey-Cooper
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Wednesday, 11 June 2008 |
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Disarming the bomb that the boss is liable to toss. Everybody’s got their insecurities, but when your boss is one of them, his insecurities rule the day and your career prospects, too. You’ll never know what to expect of him, rest assured, his actions are chosen to make him feel better, even at your expense. Jeanne Sahadi of CNNMoney.com says that, in the best of cases, you learn to contort your actions to soothe the boss’s quivering sense of self. In the worst case you are perceived as a threat, and you are fired. Your abilities, popularity, and communication skills can surprisingly drive your boss up the tree. He will schedule his meeting around your travel schedule, take credit for your work, and eventually convince his boss to get rid of you, even though you are a top performer. He will try to throw you under the bus at every turn. He will try to make you unsuccessful by impossible assignments and take credit for your earlier accomplishments. Driven by fear, envy, and self doubt, a boss’s insecurities can be manifested by: |
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 11 June 2008 )
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