Transcripts

"Commentary"- A Message For Bully Bosses

SUZANNE PRATT: Tonight's commentator has some thoughts for bully bosses as we head into the New Year. Here's Bill Baker, author of "Leading with Kindness: How Good People Consistently Get Superior Results."

BILL BAKER, PROFESSOR, FORDHAM UNIVERSITY: As we studied the research we did for our book and public television documentary, "Leading with Kindness", we wondered if we had perhaps isolated one of the possible causes of the recent financial crisis. Sampling the database of the American Management Association we found that workers with bully bosses don't speak openly and candidly to their superiors, probably because they are afraid of them. Similarly, 64 percent of those who have these imperious bosses say their bosses didn't listen to what they say, as opposed to only 7 percent with kind bosses. Might this give you some idea as to how so-called smart leaders drove their Wall Street firms off the proverbial cliff and later testified before Congress that they didn't know it was happening? They were probably telling the truth. They had no communication with their line management and the workers who knew what was happening but were afraid to say. Or maybe they were told but just didn't listen. Kind bosses are not doormats, nice people who are walked over by their employees. Rather they conduct themselves like knowledgeable parents demonstrating qualities such as compassion, integrity and gratitude. There's some good news too. Seventy four percent of the people surveyed in our AMA database said their bosses were kind, a real surprise and very hopeful for America's productivity. I'm Bill Baker.