Have you ever felt like your employees are far superior to you in intellect? If you haven't they you are enjoying the concept of ignorance is bliss. Let's be frank. Chances are if you're the boss, you're the dumb one.
But don't be dismayed. Even as Stupid Boss (SB), you can still be successful at motivating your staff. Here are five simple steps you can follow so that your intellectually superior staff will still respect you and help you run your organization as a lean, mean, efficient machine.
Don't pretend to understand
Stupid Boss syndrome inherently causes you to always want to appear right or at least in the know. This is seriously frowned upon by all employees who possess any sort of intelligence greater than that of an amoeba. At times when Intelligent Employee (IE) is trying to explain something to you, if you don't understand, then say so. Each time you admit that you're a dumbass IE will respect you a little bit more. This is because even though IE thinks you're a dumbass, it takes a really big dumbass to be able to admit it. And by admitting it, you are taking the first step towards recovery. And that's what everyone wants to see - you acknowledging that you're a really big dumbass, aren't afraid to admit it, and are willing to ask questions so that the IEs around you can help you understand.Don't volunteer for stuff without checking with the IEs first.
I know that this probably sounds a little backwards; that the boss should be asking the employee first before volunteering the department for things. But Stupid Boss syndrome means that you don't have the intellectual capacity to decide whether or not it is a good idea for you to make that decision. You don't actually know whether or not you should accept a particular action because you don't really know whether or not anyone in your group can do it.
Stupid Boss syndrome usually causes you to volunteer for everything because you want to be helpful. But it would be better if you understood the mandate of your position. Your job is not to be helpful, but to be functional. You're no use to anyone if you volunteer to do stuff that neither you nor your organization can do (be it your group doesn't have the jurisdiction to do it, or no one is able to do it because of skill level, or work load, etc). If you volunteer for stuff, commit to deadlines, and cause other people to commit to downstream deadlines based on your commitments, and then you fail to meet your commitments, obviously you're not being helpful. Volunteering for stuff without thinking is not helpful. You're no use to anyone if you're not functional. So stop doing it. Listen more and talk less.
This is one of those sit down, shut-up, and listen moments. Basically, you need to come to terms with the fact that you're stupid. This doesn't mean that you never get to say anything. But it does mean that you need to do a lot more listening than talking. And that also means don't cut people off when they're talking to you, because you're an SB which means that even if you think you know what they're going to say, you don't. Share information.
As the boss, you will always get a lot of pertinent information that your IEs don't get. This information isn't any sort of technical or substantial information regarding the theories of what they do, but often it is important managerial decisions that have been made higher up. It gets to you and if you want your team of IEs to do a sensational job, then you need to share this stuff with them. You're a Stupid Boss, so you really can't afford to hoard information. If you do, all you've done is set your staff up for failure. If they fail, then your whole organization looks bad, your staff get beat up by customers, and your staff and customers respect you even less than before. Know your place.
As a SB, your place is away from the work. You were hired to make decisions and organize. So, you need to understand how to delegate work properly, how to manage an even workload for your staff, and rely on the expertise and intelligence of your staff to help you make your decisions. That is your place. It is not your place to do the actual work. You'll just muck it up, make everyone look bad, and create unnecessary, redundant work for an IE who is going to end up resenting your stupidity and your meddling. It's also your job to shield your IEs from externals. So if a customer is unhappy (regardless of whether or not they have a legitimate reason) you should be shielding your IE from the lashings. You can lash them yourself behind the closed doors of your office, but you do not allow anyone to beat up your staff.
If you stick up for them, they will work harder to make you look good and they will respect you. If you leave them out there to hang and dry, not only will they still not respect you, but they'll also start to hate you. And if they can manage to ditch their work ethic somewhere with their anger, they'll also stop trying to make you look good. That's pretty career-limiting for you, so you need to really think about it.
Ultimately, it's important to know that regardless of what type of boss you are, your staff are there to accomplish something and make you (and the rest of the department) look good. As long as you acknowledge the expertise where it is, and clearly understand your role as boss, you can still be stupid yet manage a great team. The last thing you'd ever want to be is just stupid.
