How many times have you witnessed a person working in a supervisory position without the necessary supervisory skills? How many times have you questioned why some leaders get the roles that they do? Probably, often.

It should come as no surprise to you, then, that at least once in your working life, you will be the victim of a bad boss. This applies to most of us, and when we experience the challenge of a bad boss with sorry supervisory skills, we need all of the help we can find to deal effectively with the situation.

The reason I periodically feature material about bad bosses is to empower you and enable you to deal with them. Let's face it. They do exist. And, what makes you define a person as a bad boss may differ from person to person, but they affect your morale, your desire to contribute at work, and your attitude both inside and outside of the office.

Who needs the discussion at your Saturday night family dinner out to focus on a bad boss? How empowering - not!

Even trickier? You may be the bad boss. This requires that you reach deep inside of yourself to ask that question. Your direct reports will rarely tell you; they have too much career progress at stake. Your colleagues will be careful, too. Many of the negative qualities that make you a bad boss, make you a poor colleague, too. Your well-meaning, often conflict averse, colleagues weigh the price of their silence versus a potentially conflict-ridden scenario.

The worst of all of this? The bad boss may be completely oblivious to the fact that their lack of direction, and other habits described in this article, make them a bad boss. Terra Vanzant-Stern does a good job of describing bad boss actions and discussing what to do about your bad boss.

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More About Dealing With Bad Bosses

• Bad to the Bone: Dealing With a Bad Boss
• What Makes a Bad Boss - Bad?
• Poll: What Makes a Manager a Bad Boss?
• Poll: Dealing With a Bad Boss
• Readers Share What Makes Their Bad Boss So Bad

Are you interested in discovering your employees' most serious complaints? Knowing what makes employees unhappy is half the battle when you think about employee work satisfaction, employee morale, positive motivation, and retention.

Listen to employees and provide opportunities for them to communicate with company managers. If employees feel safe, they will tell you what's on their minds. Your work culture must foster trust for successful two-way communication.

You need to provide ways for employees to communicate, air their concerns, and see that their voiced opinions had an impact on your work systems. You need to, not just listen, but be prepared to tell employees what their shared concerns changed about your business.

If an employee's concerns changed nothing, give them that feedback, too. But especially, tell the employee why his or her concern changed nothing. Without this critical feedback, employees feel as if their concern went into a black hole somewhere in space. Despite the fact that you took the time to listen, you need to close the feedback loop for the communication to count.

Readers share their most significant employee complaints. Why not share yours?

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Employers ask a lot about employee satisfaction, employee engagement, employee motivation, employee involvement, employee empowerment, and employee morale. There are differences between each of these concepts, but many people use them interchangeably. I'm on a mission to define them so that they each have a modicum of usefulness in discussions about what employees need and want at work - and what employers need and want from employees.

I want engaged, empowered employees who have positive morale and who are motivated to perform responsibly, effectively and professionally. I also want them to experience deep satisfaction from their work, their involvement in their workplace, their colleagues, and their company's policies and employee engagement programs.

Are you laughing yet? I am. Even smiling? Please. It's not the words; it's the workplace. Let's make them environments in which employees want to work, environments in which employees thrive. And, I'll continue my definitions on this overcast Monday morning.

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Tapping the subject of millennial or Gen Y employees again today as a podcast of my discussion with award winning host, Michael Finney on KGO 810, San Francisco, last Saturday is now online. If you'd like to listen to me talking about Gen Y employees, my segment begins about 30 minutes into the podcast.

You can slide the arrow along the continuum if you'd like to skip the first thirty minutes.

Interested in more about Gen Y and the other generations at work? Here are all of the Gen Y resources that are available on this site. As always, scroll past the ads for more resources.

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