Image: iStockphoto

Everyone has had a boss from hell.

There are ways to deal with any boss when you disagree with their managerial methods. “The key is for employees to try to see what the boss sees from the boss’s eyes/perspective. What does the boss really love about their job? Try to help them with the tasks they don’t enjoy. What annoys the boss about managing people? Then, don’t do it. What do they value most? Do it,” says workplace expert Nancy Stampahar, owner of Silver Lining Solutions. “If the boss is arrogant and takes credit for [your] work, don’t take it personally!  Play the game by telling him things like how you couldn’t have done it without him.  Be certain to document all of your work in the event you need to prove your contributions.”

And try to get to know you boss better without getting “too buddy-buddy,” Stampahar suggests.

Fast Company magazine just compiled a few tips on how to handle horrible bosses. According to the article there are three types of bad bosses:

The micromanager: “A micromanager plays an overly large role in the projects of his or her subordinates. Instead of letting them use their own judgment, the boss makes every decision or dictates every step to take…,” explains Fast Company.  “If you think your boss is a micromanager, first make sure that he or she isn’t merely responding to your own poor performance… In that event, try to regain your boss’s confidence through a small project.” But if you boss micromanages everyone, it is a good idea to discuss this problem with your boss. Your boss may not even realize they are micromanaging and not allowing you to do your work. “Many micromanagers have an underlying fear that something will go wrong if anyone is given managerial discretion. You can address this fear by frequently sharing information throughout the course of a project,” advises the article.

The neglecter:  Then there is the opposite of the micromanager. A boss you doesn’t get involved at all — gives no feedback, opinion on decisions or projects. It’s like they’re not there. This leaves employees always guessing as to what the boss wants or needs. “To fix this problem, you’ll have to be very assertive to get your boss’s attention. If you receive an assignment with unclear goals, ask for clarification right then and there,” suggests Fast Company.

The yeller: Other bosses think the way to manage is through abuse. They yell, threaten and belittle. They want to instill fear in the team. Detach yourself, states the magazine. “The boss’s unacceptable behavior has nothing to do with you. It has everything to do with his or her own problems, which you can’t fix,” writes. Try and understand what trigger this behavior and avoid these triggers. If you can’t deal, it may be time to look for another job.

Source: Concreteloop.com

The strides women are making in the world are not lost on business magazine Fast Company. That’s why they’ve dedicated their July/August issue to 60 female influencers who are changing the game in their feature, “The League of Extraordinary Women.” And though we’re always happy to revel in the accomplishments of women worldwide, what’s especially nice about this list is that it celebrates the successes of a number of black women from Alicia Keys, who landed the cover, Oprah, Laila Ali, and Liya Kebede, to Tiffany Dufu (The White House Project), Leymah Gbowee (Women and Peace Security Network), and Michele Ozumba (Women’s Funding Network).

The magazine talked to Alicia Keys about her work in South Africa with the Keep a Child Alive organization and how a chance offer from AIDS activist Leigh Blake to tour the country and witness its AIDS epidemic firsthand back in 2002, led Alicia to become one of the most prominent celebrity AIDS activists.

“I started meeting these kids who had been so isolated and alone, and not much younger than me,” said Alicia who is now 31 but was only 21 when she began her work. “It was so deep to me. Leigh had a very clear vision, that if we could get these kids the right antiretroviral medication, we could allow them to lead a full life. I dedicated myself to that vision right then.”

The two ended up founding Keep a Child Alive later as an organization dedicated to raising funds for medication and HIV-related programs.

“When I think of these crazy stories of women in certain countries who are forbidden birth control or protection of any sort,” she said, sighing, “these married women concerned that their husbands have the virus . . . it works out in the worst way for them.”

Thankfully, the millions of dollars she’s raised over the past 10 years has helped to make sure things start to work out the best for these women. Check out the full list of Fast Company‘s extraordinary women here. What do you think?

Brande Victorian is the news and operations editor for madamenoire.com. Follow her on twitter @Be_Vic.

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Source: Schoolbullyingcouncil.com

When you hear about someone being bullied, you usually picture the victim as a child—unless of course we’re discussing an episode of “Basketball Wives,” and even then, the victim and the perpetrator are at least in the same age group. But the case of Karen Klein has turned all of those commonalities on it’s head. The 68-year-old school bus monitor who was verbally abused and bullied by a group of seventh-grade students last week has not just gotten the entire nation in an uproar, she’s sparked action. What was at first a tiny campaign geared at sending this working woman on a much-needed vacation after the verbal abuse she endured has grown into a massive outpouring of financial support to the tune of $650,000 courtesy of 16,000 random Americans who don’t know this woman at all. They’ve only heard her story as it’s been reported in the media or contributed to one of the 7 million views on the Youtube video showing her being taunted on that school bus that day. The question is, why has her story resonated so much more than all of the other countless instances of bullying in this country?

There certainly have been other high-profile bullying cases, Tyler Clementi’s suicide at Rutgers most notably. That situation certainly gave way to the anti-bulling video campaign that launched around that time, but even then, the circumstances surrounding Tyler’s death had people on the fence about whether he was really bullied and what, if any wrong, had really been done. When it comes to Karen, the distinction that I think has garnered so much support is the fact that this woman was berated by kids more than 50 years younger than her. That time of realization doesn’t allow for the “kids just being kids” excuse so many teachers, parents, principles, and school officials use to justify the same behavior when it goes on between two seventh graders. When you hear the things these kids were saying to Karen and how they poked her stomach and called her names, you see this is far more than a kid being picked on on the playground. There’s more than an air of mean-spiritedness and an obvious lack of respect for one’s elders that suddenly doesn’t make people want to sweep this under the rug.

This situation also doesn’t allow for the dismissal of that type of taunting as just being “apart of life.” So many adults are bullied by their superiors every single day on the job, particularly in competitive, male-dominated industries, but subordinates are told to take it, to pay their dues, and to play the game if they want to excel. Mark C. Crowley of Fast Company says it’s the fact that Americans see themselves in Karen when they watch her cry on that bus, that has brought on this type of collective support. He says there’s rarely a person who can’t identify with being put down on the job, often by the very people you are serving and sometimes even protecting, as she was—and not to mention for a measley wage. Karen Klein earned just $15,000 a year monitoring those Upstate New York kids on that yellow bus.

“[M]any of us feel disrespected and under-appreciated for the work we do everyday,” Mark wrote. “Consciously or unconsciously, we’re projecting our feelings about our own jobs onto the experience of Mrs. Klein. We’re hurting at work and are suffering Mrs. Klein’s pain as that of our own.”

If that’s the case, then this story of support is much less about bullying and much more about the general state of unhappiness among the American workforce. One could easily argue that’s a far greater epidemic than bullying, but I don’t think the fact that the perpetrators in this case were children should be lost on the fact that this type of thing goes on every day. The thing is, little bullies grow up to be big bullies and so the motivations behind this fast-growing initiative are one in the same. If we want to stop adults from being berated on their jobs, we need to stop children from bullying one another (and even adults) while they’re young. What’s seen as harmless at 12-years-old looks quite different at age 40 in a seat of authority inside of a fortune 500 company.

There’s obviously an element of group thinking and peer pressure evident in this bus bullying situation, as evidenced by the fact that several children engaged in the taunting and not one came to the woman’s defense or thought to tell his peers to stop. But that type of behavior was learned before those kids got around each other on that bus and I think actually seeing and hearing the type of behavior that goes on among teens, pre-teens, and even younger is making people realize sticks and stones break bones but words hurt a lot too. For many, the reality of bullying just got real for the first time and if people are willing to put their money behind Karen Klein to right these kids’ wrongs, hopefully they’ll put their mind behind their own words and curb the examples of bullying they support consciously or unconsciously—and stand up against the real-life instances they witness every day.

Why do you think so many people are showing support for Karen Klein in this situation?

Brande Victorian is the news and operations editor for madamenoire.com. Follow her on twitter @Be_Vic.

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(Fast Company) In 1980, K’naan was a child in Mogadishu. Twenty years later, Coca-Cola will decide to build its biggest marketing campaign ever, a $300 million — plus global adventure involving 160 countries and the greatest sporting event in the world, around that skinny child from that godforsaken country. The deal will go so well that Coke, which Interbrand calls “the world’s No. 1 brand,” will completely redefine the way it works with content providers. And, of course, it will change K’naan’s life, although not in the ways you might expect. “It was an intense place, said K’naan. “ I now realize it’s healthy for a society to have some middles,” K’naan says, “but Somalis live only in the extremes. There’s extreme violence and extreme poetry, extreme hate and extreme beauty and heartache. There are no in-betweens. It’s good for art but not good for life.”

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