Good Bosses and Bad Apples

Following on from my last post about Robert Sutton’s book, Good Boss, Bad Boss, another of Suttons’ observations about good workplace performance is that “bad is stronger than good” and, therefore, that:

You may have come across the statistic about positive interactions needing to outnumber negative interactions by at least five to one in romantic relationships and marriages.  Well it turns out that workplaces operate along similar lines.

Sutton draws on previous research, including that of the “bad apple” phenomenon, suggesting that negative people and experiences have stronger impacts than positive ones. As he puts it in his presentation:

How would your boss fare in being assessed against Sutton’s criteria? – You can find out here http://goodbadboss.com/ in his Boss Reality Assessment Survey System (BRASS).

If you’re really daring, you could even ask your team to rate you and report back with their findings!