"Dumb" Bosses

Kris Maher's Career Journal column on page D6 of the 10/21/2003 Wall Street Journal (and on line at the Career Journal link provided above), asked "How do you cope with a dumb boss?"

Now working with "dumb" bosses IS a real problem for a LOT of people these days and is a great cause of stress and strain in the workplace. And I thought that the points made by both the columnist and those interviewed were valid. (Perhaps because they echoed much of what I wrote about two years ago in an articled titled, Effectively Managing Your Boss!) But, characterizing dumb bosses as they did - as worthless at best and dangerous at worst - felt very, very wrong to me.

Bosses, even the so-called "dumb" ones, have a wide variety of skills, training, and talents. And even if they're not as polished or capable as some employees think they should be, they typically still have a lot of valuable information to teach - to those truly interested in learning. So while I commend the WSJ for tackling the dumb-boss issue head-on, I regret that they focused more on coping skills than on learning how to be a better learner from these maybe-not-so-dumb-after-all bosses. And I sent Kris Maher an email yesterday saying just that.