Raise your hand if you have a bad boss. Now raise your hand if you've ever had a bad boss. I can't quite make a count, but I'm hoping that those of you with raised hands constitute a minority of my readers. I'm somewhat afraid that you probably constitute a majority.

That's not such a bad thing, right? After all, many of us have had lots of bosses, starting at age 16 or 17, and continuing on through today. There's a good chance that somewhere along the line we had a really, really bad boss. The people that used to manage paper boys, or clerks, or fast food cooks aren't known for their superior leadership skills, are they?

However you would think that in business that developing good managers would be a priority, wouldn't you? So many people seem to lavish much of the success in business on management, so one would think that companies actually do spend time and money to train managers to be excellent at their jobs. Please stop laughing, you're distracting me from continuing.

Those of you that have been managers know that all too often there is no training. People are thrown into the job, expected to manage while learning on the job. Those that survive, or perhaps thrive, get promoted. Unfortunately that's the theory. All too often I find those that please their boss are promoted.

A bad boss can be rather damaging, and in these days of complex systems, short deadlines, and a struggle to to find good employees, wouldn't you want to keep as many good employees as you can? If you can't train great managers, can you at least train them to not be bad ones?

Steve Jones

The Voice of the DBA Podcasts

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