How to treat the"Crusher Boss"(1)

I also have happened to meet the “Crusher Boss" in the past.  There were times when such people are my boss or my colleague. The "Crusher Boss" seems to be defined generally as follows;

・He or she will blame for a long time the miss of the person who work under him or her

・Because the appearance of the opinion of the Crusher Boss seems to be very logical and based on their personal work experience, it will be very difficult for their subordinate to object to his or her argument. If the subordinate objects to the Crusher Boss argument, the Crusher Boss will eagerly deny such opinion and pushes the Crusher Boss' opinion. Even though the difference of the action of the subordinates from his or her images of the work is very small, the crusher boss will try to rectify such action as quickly as he can.

・He or she will not listen to the opinion of the person who work under him or her, although he or she will force his or her opinion on their subordinates.

( Reference: クラッシャー上司 - Wikipedia(Japanese))

 One of the characteristic of the Crusher Boss is that the work he or she do seems to be highly achieved and worth trusted through the eye from the colleague or boss of the Crusher Boss. On the other hand, if he or she needs to be in the relationship with  the Crusher Boss as a subordinate, I think it will be tragedy since the colleague or the boss of the Crusher Boss are on the side of the Crusher Boss even though they had sympathy of the subordinates.

When you google it, in most cases, the website seems to provide solutions such as quit such office or job and run away from such situation. But there are some cases where you cannot quit your job and the evasion is not realistic. So I would like to think of four solutions to this situation when it is difficult to quit a job.

1.Analyze deeply why you hate the Crusher Boss

Hating someone is the backside of your desire. If you have no desire, you will not hate anyone.

Although each person has each reason why people hate the Crusher Boss, in my experience, it will be the threat of the sense of the value of the work. It is the backside of the feeling such as "I want to work freely" or " I want to decide all things." without such boss.

2.If you are able to analyze your desire, you need to rethink whether such desire is necessary for you

If the desire is that you wanted your sense of the value of the work to be recognized by such Crusher Boss, you need to rethink of that. The Crusher Boss lives in a different world from you. You might be able to think the Crusher Boss as Gorilla. You really want your values to be recognized by Gorilla?

As lots of books mentions, it is almost impossible to change the value of the Crusher Boss (Same as you cannot change Gorilla into human beings). It will be worth nothing to try to change the character of the Crusher Boss. If you think as such, there will be more choices for action you can take.

3.　Observe the action of the Crusher Bosses in detail and if there are any slight actions which are benefit for you, tell the Crusher Bosses the complement or praise to such actions and lead such Crusher Bosses to comfortable person in a manner that the Crusher Boss doesn't know such change was caused from you.

This is the method explained in the book called "The technique to avoid to be scolded*1". The Crusher boss is also wondering how he or she should be as a boss. They don't want to be a bad person from the first time. By praising, you might be able to provide the images of the ideal boss from you. (For example, the Crusher Boss might sometime trust your work, immediately; tell him “Thanks for trusting my work. You are surely generous man." This method requires patience and you need to tell him many times but if the Crusher Boss was told as such for a many times, the Crusher Boss starts labeling their self images such as they are very generous man and there are slight possibilities for their changes.) However, since the Crusher Boss is generally very cautious person, you need to be very careful for the complement.Your intention might be seen through by the Crusher Boss

4.Always think the multiple solutions. It is skill, not a gift, to think of many ideas for solution when you are in trouble. Such skill is very useful wherever you work. It is desirable to acquire such skill in this kind of situation.

 Lastly, the Crusher Boss will not success if the Crusher Boss finishes being as a Crusher Boss. The reason is clear. The Crusher Boss has a narrowed view of the world (Again, it is worth nothing to try to change such Crusher Boss by directly correcting his stance. If any, I think the solution would be kind of 3 above in which unconsciously lead the Crusher Boss to change his or her stance). Although his prestige might be little better than you, he will soon reach a deadlock. On the other, by contacting with such Crusher Boss, I think there are some benefits for you. There is an opinion which indicates that you will grow most when the stress exists*2. You don't have to think of revenge. I think it is enough for you to observe the Crusher Boss as a Gorilla.

This was the summery but I would like to discuss this issue again in detail.

 *1 (I think It is not translated in English)

https://www.amazon.co.jp/怒られない技術-「失敗」を切り抜ける心理テクニック-知的発見-BOOKS-内藤誼人-ebook/dp/B00GOL2QW4

 *2 Japanese translated version of "Kelly McGonigal, The Upside of Stress: Why stress is good for you (and how to get good at it) "

スタンフォードのストレスを力に変える教科書 | ケリー・マクゴニガル, 神崎 朗子 |本 | 通販 | Amazon