If you are a boss or a team leader (or anyone who works in an organisation/team) who would like to undermine someone who works for you or alongside you, doing one or more of the following is guaranteed to give you results!
I’m being extremely sarcastic, using this post to highlight some of the terrible practices that exist today, things that people do to others, in their professional and/or personal lives.
You can do all of these or just focus on a choice few tips, but either way, when you are done, whoever your target is, will never be the same again!
Without further ado, here are some of the things you can do to undermine anyone:
- Don’t ever trust them.
- Don’t make eye contact with them when they’re talking to you or always be multitasking when they approach you, ensuring you never give them your undivided attention.
- Don’t ever acknowledge their skills or experience or what they have to offer to the organisation/team.
- Treat them as if they know nothing.
- Question/second-guess everything they say or do.
- Give them tasks that a beginner can do and when they’ve completed it, tell them they fell short!
- Give them tasks you know they have no interest in completing or will fail at.
- Don’t help them when they really need help/guidance.
- Ignore issues or problems they raise.
- Gang up on them in debates or conversations.
- Don’t involve them in anything that they should be involved in, especially those crucial meetings and company organised social events!
- Don’t treat them as if they’re a part of the organisation/team.
- Tease their appearance or fashion sense.
- Gossip about them.
These are listed in no particular order, but it’s easy to discern that some of the tips listed here have a lot more effect/impact than others. Not only that, this list is not exhaustive by any means.
Now, some of you may argue that everything mentioned here is just too direct and obvious and it would be impossible to get away with. The answer to that is to be subtle about everything.
If you have already been employing one or more of these techniques in your management skills, well done! If not, I hope you have learned a thing or two that you can add to your arsenal and put into effect immediately.
These tips and tricks can also be used in everyday life to achieve the desired results, not just in a professional environment!
Sadly, there are many people out there who are utterly clueless when it comes to managing/dealing with people. Then there are those individuals who are fully aware of what they’e doing, but do it anyway because they get a sick pleasure out of the misery of others.
A number of things I have listed above would be considered abuse, which could lead to long term damage in the person experiencing these things, not to mention legal trouble for the perpetrator(s).
Don’t be someone who treats another human being, whoever they may be, in this manner.
If you are or have been a victim of such practices, please know that I’m not making light of your pain or experience. This post is not meant to cause harm, but to raise awareness.
People have taken their own lives because of such experiences, This is no laughing matter.
Thanks for reading.
Sri
Special thanks to Scott Hanselman for taking time to read this post and for giving his feedback.
Thank Sri 🙂