How to Deal With An Incompetent Boss

Due to a combination of bad decision making and too much trust in people’s potential, teams and organizations often end up with an incompetant boss in charge. It’s not uncommon for them to exist even in reputable corporations, which take pride in the quality of their management.

An incompetant boss or leader is a person in a managerial position who does not have the level of intelligence required to do their job well. And by the level of intelligence, I would mean a reasonable, if not high, level in the three main intelligences IQ, EQ and SQ, ensuring an optimal performance.

The three intelligences mapped onto the Optimal Performance Model

While it can be frustrating to have an incompetent boss, an incompetent boss can seriously damage or derail your career. If they do have a serious lack of knowledge, we know that they can do nothing to grow you as an employee which means any growth will be yours to make happen. Let’s look at the potential damage they can inflict and what you can do to minimize or avoid.

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Career Impact

Bad Decisions

Bad decisions will have impact on the whole team. A clueless boss will never be able to make good decisions because they don’t know the team's work, putting you in a position that makes you look like you tanked the business. It can make you lose precious time and focus or even get fired.

Bad Guidance 

We look for our boss to provide direction in the form of “how to” all the way to yearly planning. When the boss is incompetent, their directions can be bad or pointless often leaving important issues untouched.

What to Take Into Consideration

Are you sure the boss is dumb?

Question yourself enough. After all, someone who has been promoted over multiple others, must have a reason for going upwards. Why was he/she chosen? Get your facts right. Disagreeing with someone on an emotional basis or not being able to dissociate feelings from facts can lead us to naming others as ‘dumb’ even as adults. Go through your own level of openness as a professional and person. Are you being too judgmental or is there something that you can factually see?

Is he the sole manager of his/her company?

The word boss sometimes implies for someone who is the sole manager of his or her company. If that is the case, its even less likely you can “deal with” them because, well, who are you going to go to for help?

So my best guidance is to move on. Quietly, start looking for a better boss. And use what you have learned about your terrible boss to ask a couple of questions directed at figuring out your new supervisor’s demeanor.

Mainly you have two options: adapt, or...

Adapting to The Situation

1. ‘Up Level’ yourself and take leadership

If you know your area well enough, there is no reason to not go ahead creating and pursuing a direction you know will achieve results good for your company. People that do this are naturally followed by their peers as an informal leader. Management, although maybe not your direct boss, will notice your initiative. Of course, you don’t want to do something that undermines the boss, so keep them in the loop.

2. Appeal to their emotions

Since most of the times an incompetent boss is not able to follow complex logic, it is often best to push their emotional buttons in order to influence their decisions. When you propose them the implementation of a certain project, don’t bother to try and persuade them with arguments.

3. Intimidate them with your intelligence

If you prove an incompetent boss that you’re simply smarter than they are, they will often feel a bit threatened and try to sabotage you. However, if you prove them that you’re a lot more intelligent than they are, than they will be really afraid to mess with you. Who knows what you can do to them and their comfortable managerial position?

Do not hesitate to use various opportunities and prove a dumb boss that you are so smart you’re out of their league. Use big words and intricate reasoning when talking with them, and act like this is the standard for you.

4. Teach them

Every time you speak to your boss you have an opportunity to train and teach them about your area. It seems kind of ludicrous to train your boss, but the ongoing investment will be worth it once they are savvy enough to know what you’re talking about.

5. Do not make it a personal matter

This is a hard one, simply because working for an incompetent boss is such a personal matter. Remember, that most of these leaders do not have a problem directly with you, but they too are frustrated and are shouting loud their own insecurities -- most likely mirroring to you things that they should be doing.

6. Learn to promote yourself

Now, more than ever, you need to think that working for a large company is not very different than working on your own. You need to learn to promote yourself. People need to know who you are, within your company and outside your company. Successful business owners never stop networking. There are so many things you can learn simply by networking.

While an incompetent boss can be annoying and frustrating, they aren’t the worse kind of boss to have – unless they are nicely packaged with other short comings like being a jerk or tossing you under the train for sport. Many times you can make up for their short comings and also “manage up” as they know innately that they lack many skills and knowledge. Don’t let your frustration get in the way of managing the situation more effectively.

Yet sometimes it's better to leave and find a new environment. Dealing with people, who you can not change, is exhausting. Even trying to deal with them on your way out can be a waste of time and energy. I realize it’s never easy to switch jobs, nor is it practical. But life is short and when we think about the fact that you will spend tens of thousands of hours at work, don't you deserve to atleast not feel like crap every day? Go find a better job. And pay attention because one day you might get to be the boss.