Fire Your Boss by Stephen M. Pollan, Mark Levine Page A

He came to see me for advice. Jon’s discreet notes on the supervisor revealed someone who got angry whenever he was interrupted by a call from the company’s management. The supervisor routinely let internal company paperwork slide and seemed to feud with every other manager, from the head bookkeeper to the director of sales. The only time he seemed happy was when he was staring intently at the screen of his workstation. It was soon clear to Jon and me that we were dealing with a loner. To thrive, Jon would need to serve as a gatekeeper.
    The stickler.
This is the boss who carries a huge rule book and needs to refer to it often. He wants everything done according to an established pattern he has set up, either in his head, or on paper if he’s an obsessive. He focuses more on how and when things are done, than on the result. He cares a great deal about how the work area and the people in it look to others.
    Joan Kent is the daughter of one of the other partners in my law firm. Her father suggested she talk to me about the problems she was having at her first job after graduating college. Joan had studied landscape architecture at a prestigious Ivy League university. Her faculty adviser helped her land a position with a well-known architectural firm headquartered in the northern suburbs of New York. Joan became a member of the staff that drew up plans for the landscaping around the firm’s corporate headquarters and shopping-center projects. Being a free spirit and creative, Joan just assumed she’d find a supportive environment. But rather than getting artistic feedback and input from her manager, all she heard was how her wardrobe wasn’t professional, her rendering wasn’t pristine, her lettering wasn’t clear enough, and her designs didn’t fit the firm’s style. Eventually, she and I realized her manager, despite being in a creative field, was a stickler.
    The glory seeker.
This is the boss who has to be a hero, even if it means creating the crisis herself. She needs to be at the center of everything. She seeks out flattery. She always needs an audience and loves to hear herself talk. She may be very concerned about her appearance. She is jealous whenever anyone else gets credit or recognition.
    Nancy Bell was ready to quit when she first came to see me. She and her husband, a member of the New York City Council, had first come to see me when they purchased their co-op apartment. Now she was looking for advice about her job as development director for a small, specialized museum. A gifted schmoozer with a large social network, Nancy was a very good fund-raiser. Yet her boss, the director of the museum, seemed to have problems with her work. She and I went over her observations. He typically took the slightest snafu — most recently, sitting two antagonistic people at the same table at an event — and blew it up into an epic catastrophe. He then personally intervened, and finally, very publicly talked about how he had saved the museum from disaster. Nancy explained that he did this, not just with her, but with everyone from the curator to the building superintendent. She and I agreed he was a classic glory seeker who needed to be seen as a hero, always riding to the rescue.
    The fighter
. This is the boss who’s always seeking conflict. He’s confrontational and has to get in the last word. He sets himself and his staff in competition with other individuals, departments, or companies. He seems to thrive on putting others down. He seems to enjoy expressing anger.
    I first met Tom Duffy when I appeared as a guest on a consumer news and information program he produced for a fledgling cable channel. He was an easygoing and very professional producer, so I was surprised when he called to tell me he had almost punched his boss the day before. I told him to come right in to see me. Tom was working on a new show at the same network, directly under the executive producer who had created the show. The executive