As leaders, our duty it to find the BEST person for the job -- not just the 'right' person.

To borrow the phrase, "taken from the headlines",  used in the multiple scenario television series 'Law & Order', writing about this topic was prompted by the situation in which one of my close friends finds himself . . . I think we can all relate.

Toxic manager syndrome -- sounds like psycho-babble that might be used in a courtroom by some high-powered lawyer to defend a client.

It's really not that different than the hundreds of new 'syndromes' that are being discovered and defined with the exception that it's rarely used in front of a jury -- so far.

TMS is often uncovered in the results of a comprehensive "360° feedback", a survey given to the manager's direct reports, who rate him/her as having  'excellent leadership skills' or 'abrasive', a 'jerk', 'dysfunctional' or even worse descriptors like an 'assh - - -' (expletive deleted).  Most of the time, how subordinates view their managers is never even considered an issue.  The employees are given 'favorable' performance reviews, allowing them to get their yearly raises, so they don't complain, and after one, two five or ten years, they find "a better paying job", with another company.

More often, nothing, and I mean that, absolutely nothing is done about this unplanned turnover.  And these acts are repeated thousands of times each day across the globe.

So now, on to my friend's story.

He's been with his current employer, one of the largest corporations the world, for more than a dozen years.  His managers have been 'grooming' him for a future role in management , and he's done everything they've asked of him, including working the night shift, where most of the action is within his business unit, for more than a decade.

My friend is a minority, and his current manager is also a minority -- but a member of a different minority class.  And my friend's boss (which is an endearing term I use for someone who is a 'backwards double SOB') has recently implied that my friend has not yet 'paid his dues' to the company in order to warrant consideration for some more upward mobility.  Can you imagine?

Here's the most likely outcome.  This hard working, diligent, trustworthy, and loyal employee will leave and hook up with a company that will appreciate his leadership talents, along with the others I've just mentioned.

So, what should be done about this?  Good grief! Use some common sense.  Is it more important to have a minority manager (SSOB) succeed at the cost of losing one (or more) of your best workers?

If you care to, email me with your choice.  I'll include the results in one of my future newsletters.