When we talk about bullying in the workplace it’s easy to assume that all bullying is intentional; the behaviour of nasty people with some sort of axe to grind. But this isn’t always the case. Some time ago, in the course of supporting a government department to deliver 360 degree feedback for their middle managers, I came across a man called Jeff. Jeff had been employed by the department for most of his working life and had risen up through the ranks through internal promotion. At the time of receiving his Appraisal360 report he was in his early 50s and operating as a Regional Manager with 6 Managers reporting into him.
In his self-assessment Jeff clearly saw himself as having very strong leadership qualities and being able to inspire and motivate others. He described himself as “a great motivator” whose team was successful, regularly exceeding targets. Whilst feedback from his line manager was in agreement with his self-assessment, feedback from his other respondents variously described him in less positive ways including:
“he’s a bully”
“he constantly harasses staff about targets”
“I’ve had to take time off sick with stress because of the way he speaks to me”
On receiving his report, Jeff became quite distressed. He couldn’t understand why, in 20 years of management, no one had ever given him this sort of feedback before. He truly believed that the behaviour described by others as bullying was him being strong, motivational and inspiring.
To read more about how I supported his 360 degree feedback go to http://www.appraisal360.co.uk/resources/expert-voices/delivering-challenging-feedback/
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