We’ve all had awful bosses before and it sucks! A bad boss can make your life miserable. As an employee, you don’t trust them, you dread coming into work every day and it is downright tiring.
As a boss, you should make it a goal to never become a terrible leader. You should be developing your employees, taking a stake in their career progression and doing your best to be fair. If you're in a leadership position at your field service business, here are eight things you should never do.
Blame employees
Horrible bosses blame their employees for mistakes. If there is a problem out in the field, bad bosses are quick to blame their employees. They either blame inexperience or ineptitude, while in reality it is more likely a lack of training or communication on the part of leadership.
Ignore upset customers
If a customer is upset, a horrible boss often will ignore their complaints. They feel that they aren’t at fault and will immediately assume that their customer is in the wrong. Their mindset is that they can’t do any wrong and they don’t listen to what their customers are telling them.
Stick to “the way we’ve always done things”
Bad field service bosses aren’t willing to change. Even if they know they’re methods, techniques or equipment are dated, they still stick to their guns. This winds up being frustrating for employees and it can turn out to be detrimental to their business. A business that doesn’t evolve over time and change with their customers’ needs will eventually fizzle out and die.
Be cheap
Horrible bosses are cheap. They aren’t willing to invest in their employees, equipment and their business. Bad leaders don’t invest in their employees through training and education. They also aren’t willing to make investments for the business, even if it is greatly needed. One sign that a business is being run by a terrible boss is that their equipment and their systems are outdated. If an office manager is still scheduling their field tech’s routes out on whiteboards and their billing off of paper invoices, it means that the boss is too cheap to buy a software to help out the business.
Play favorites
A bad boss has favorites within the business and it shows. They might give a certain field tech better routes, more opportunity to train and unfairly get them to a position to become promoted. They become friendly with either one or two employees and forget about the rest of their team. It is extremely frustrating for employees when their boss does this. They don’t have equal opportunities within the business, they become discouraged and their work shows that.
Lose focus
Horrible field service bosses lose focus easily. They jump from one idea to the next. They won’t work a strategy or take the time to plan. A good boss will work a strategy and will benchmark their progress. They know that it takes patience to work a plan and that it might take time to see success.
Waste time
Bad bosses waste both their employees’ and their customers’ time. A bad leader will have employees work on pointless tasks. They’ll also make them dedicate time to work that doesn’t help the business. And as employees, it can be frustrating to waste a customer’s time because your boss asked you to spend time on a pointless task.
Make excuses
This is the worst thing a field service boss does consistently. They make excuses to their employees and they make excuses to their customers. They will never take ownership of their mistakes and it can lose them customers and it will eventually kill their business.
