Surrounded by Bad Bosses (And Lazy Employees) Quotes

“A Simple Way to Summarize Everything We’ve Talked About What sort of boss do you want to be? What is your mission statement? How can you formulate your own aims? Remember that in order to know how to use your time, you need to know what your aims are. How much of your day should be focused on leadership? Start there. With the rest of your time, you can be as much of a specialist as you want. Study staff member X for a while. Note how he or she acts. Have your antennae active. Try to ascertain what colors you see. Think about what attracted the employee here. Why was this particular job important? Which driving forces could be showing up here? Why does the person stay on at this job? Look at a concrete work task and try to ascertain the necessary development level. There could be several analyses, depending on how many different actions the person has to carry out in a given day. The more you break it down, the more exactly you can guide the person.”
― Thomas Erikson, Surrounded by Bad Bosses (And Lazy Employees): How to Stop Struggling, Start Succeeding, and Deal with Idiots at Work [The Surrounded by Idiots Series]

“27.33.”
― Thomas Erikson, Surrounded by Bad Bosses (And Lazy Employees): How to Stop Struggling, Start Succeeding, and Deal with Idiots at Work [The Surrounded by Idiots Series]

“Whatever you need to convey to your staff member after this analysis—instructions, feedback, follow-up, brainstorming, or whatever—you can adapt according to their color(s). Perhaps you want to do a real communication analysis of each member of staff. That might be a good idea. It will help make communication between you smoother. Continually remind yourself who you are. Remind yourself that you might have other colors and other driving forces than your staff members. Don’t make the mistake of assuming that other colors function the same way you do. The trick here is that you give yourself some time to think and consider. Don’t just use your gut feeling and keep going in your usual style. You could, of course, do that, but then you’ll get the same results you did before. If you want to achieve something new, then you’ll have to test something new. I know. That’s a lot to take in. Theory X and Theory”
― Thomas Erikson, Surrounded by Bad Bosses (And Lazy Employees): How to Stop Struggling, Start Succeeding, and Deal with Idiots at Work [The Surrounded by Idiots Series]

“In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. But in practice there is.”
― Thomas Erikson, Surrounded by Bad Bosses (And Lazy Employees): How to Stop Struggling, Start Succeeding, and Deal with Idiots at Work [The Surrounded by Idiots Series]

“If we look at Eduard Spranger’s studies of driving forces in work life, you could say that there are basically six driving forces:”
― Thomas Erikson, Surrounded by Bad Bosses (And Lazy Employees): How to Stop Struggling, Start Succeeding, and Deal with Idiots at Work [The Surrounded by Idiots Series]

“discernable.”
― Thomas Erikson, Surrounded by Bad Bosses and Lazy Employees: How to Deal with Bad Managers and Colleagues, from the Bestselling Author of Surrounded by Idiots