Have you ever had one of those bosses that made you think, how are you a manager? Of course you have. Was it because they didn’t appear to know what they were doing or was it because they seemed incapable of making a decision?

It may not be their fault. Increasingly employees think their managers can’t address the issues that are concerning them. This is not a case of ineffective or indecisive management but poor leadership.

Employees can be let down by a leadership that doesn’t understand the business, a leadership that doesn’t listen, that doesn’t trust employees or managers, one that puts profit before values and views the role of managers as telling people what to do.

At a recent NHS conference Dame Anne Marie Rafferty, former Royal College of Nursing (RCN) president and professor of nursing policy at King’s College London stated  “A majority of staff are not confident their line managers are able to act on their concerns…..It’s a leadership problem. More basic support for line managers and supervisors, because those are the people who need it .”

This lack of support is not simply a failure to provide adequate resources, it’s a failure to build mutual trust, a failure to protect and defend. Unsupportive leadership is characterised by unfair criticism, unrealistic expectations and suspicion.

Managers have  a habit of saying, “ My door is aways open” meaning they are accessible and willing to listen but it turns out you can’t just knock on the door and walk in you need to make an appointment and the diary always seems full. Yes they are busy but not too busy for good news!

Supportive leadership is listening to and acknowledging your problems and together coming up with solutions as opposed to being told,”Don’t bring me problems bring me solutions”.  Supportive leadership takes responsibility when things go wrong rather than find someone to blame.

Following death of a child in the care of the Local Authority the Director supported their staff, believing the relevant team manager and social worker had acted professionally and competently. The leadership sacked the Director.

The Director had pointed out training had been reduced, staffing levels reduced, the number of management/supervisor posts reduced , recruitment frozen or delayed , staffing vacancies were high in some teams resulting in an over reliance on agency staff, the ratio of unqualified to qualified  staff increased. Waiting list/ time between referral and assessment increased. These were leadership decisions  in response to desire to make ,” efficient savings” due to the organisations budget/ financial position. 

If the leadership’s ambitions exceed resources. If the leaderships response to things going wrong is to find someone to blame. If the leaderships doesn’t want to hear bad news or acknowledge problems. Then the leadership is not supportive and managers will find it difficult to address the concerns of employees.