10 Insecure Boss Traits & How To Cope With Them

Written By Assma Riaz

Insecure and toxic bosses are spread everywhere and we all have seen them at some point in our careers. But have you ever noticed what traits make such people?

Of course, you never get the time to ponder about such issues. But we’re here to your rescue! We’ll help you identify the traits that birth insecurity in your boss.

Insecure bosses are those creatures that would make it difficult for a person to survive at the job.

Top 10 Traits Of Insecure Boss:

A good boss, despite his insecurity, would try his best to do good for people because he can tackle his insecurities.

On the contrary, an insecure boss would take these insecurities on a personal level. And try to harm the organization’s reputation.

It results badly when they don’t even try to take responsibility for their actions.

So here, have a look at some insecure boss traits. These traits are either quite visible or hidden.

1. His Insecurity Won’t Let You Progress In Your Career:

An insecure boss won’t ever provide you any learning opportunity because of his fear of failure. He thinks that if you learn something new, you might surpass him.

His too insecure of getting left back in life that he can’t see anyone else progressing. 

For instance, your boss might exclude your name from the list of training schedules. But little does he know, that it won’t bring any good to him either.

2. He Oppresses You And Finds Peace In It:

A boss who is insecure about his employees would often use harsh words towards his employees.

He’ll pinpoint your mistakes in front of everyone and embarrass you.

You’ll see such bosses justifying this bullying behavior as workplace jokes. Well, that’s not the case!

Bullying Is Their Favorite Thing To do
He Oppresses You And Finds Peace In It

Even when they give an example of an employee to encourage others, this also negatively affects that person.

It lowers the morale of employees and causes a fear in them to get ashamed in public.

The boss must be insecure and trying to prove his dominance.

3. Your Insecure Boss Always Runs A Tight Ship:

A toxic manager wants everything to go from under his eye. They think that they are in charge of every matter.

Even such bosses check the work done by you before it goes upwards. During this process, they try to steal the credit whenever possible.

Such behavior is often due to the fear they have that they might get ignored or sidelined.

Insecure bosses know that an opportunity for someone to shine is a danger to them.

So instead of doing something exciting to grow their career. They pay attention to what others are doing and lose opportunities for themselves.

4. He’s Too Spineless To Take A Decision – Insecure Boss Traits:

Insecure people aren’t able of decision-making in life. You’ll see an insecure boss take decisions at the last moment when there is no room left for delay.

This is because they are indecisive and the fear of failure surrounds them.

Their mind is too busy to think about those thousands of scenarios that would occur as an outcome.

Insecure Boss Traits
He’s Too Spineless To Take A Decision – Insecure Boss Traits

Instead of taking a decision and sticking to it, they remain inactive and indecisive.

5. Acts As The “Google” Of The Office – A Clear Trait Of Insecure Boss:

Having an attitude of superiority, insecure bosses pretend as if they know everything.

This behavior of dominancy becomes so strong, they even snatch the right of decision-making from employees.

Whereas in actuality, leaders and bosses are there to help people to grow and develop.

Insecure People Consider Themselves Superior
Acts As The “Google” Of The Office – A Clear Trait Of Insecure Boss

But this trait related to knowing-it-all won’t let this happen when a toxic manager tries to shut out his employees’ opinions.

The result will be employees leaving out and finding out a new job.

The reason behind this behavior can be a boss trying not to lose his position.

6. Your Insecure Boss Is Disinterested Towards You:

This trait is visible when a manager doesn’t know how to answer the requests. To cover his inexperience, he might try to ignore or avoid the queries or requests.

This insecurity is getting exposed as an inexperienced person in front of employees. It happens when there is the addition of new technology or projects that require updated skills.

Or when an inexperienced boss gets to deal with smart and capable employees.

Insecure Boss Traits
Your Insecure Boss Is Disinterested Towards You

So in such situations, an incompetent boss feels threatened because of a lack of confidence in their skills and capability.

7. Too Hungry To Eat Away Your Courage – Insecure Boss Traits:

A toxic boss has become insecure to a point that he thinks other’s good performance will outshine his performance.

Instead of fighting out their insecurity, such people try to lower the morale of others.

You’ve to carefully deal with such bosses because they’re ready to eat away your confidence. He just wants to satisfy his pointless ego and there’s nothing else.

8. An Insecure Boss Trusts No One To Pass On The Work:

A major trait of insecure managers is that they are not good at consigning work to people.

Either they don’t know how to delegate the work or they are too proud to trust anyone else.

Most of the time, they’d delegate the tasks at the last moment because they know that they can’t handle it.

They Are Bad At Delegation
They Can’t Delegate – Insecure Boss Traits.

Yet, they collect this work in the first place to please the top management. Even knowing that it’s impossible to do all the work by themselves.

While in reality, they should be focusing on the bigger picture. And see why it’s necessary to delegate the tasks.

They aren’t aware of the fact that delegation of work increases productivity.

9. He Recruits People With Weak Intellect To Highlight Himself:

He doesn’t hire good people because he is afraid of the people who may surpass him in excellence.

This fear makes them afraid to have such people who can be an option to replace them.

Insecure people are not sure about the security of their position. So that’s why they won’t hire a staff that is skillful and good at their work.

10. He’s A Blockade For Everyone Else In The Office:

If you are a good employee doing your job at its best then, your insecure boss feels threatened by you.

His mind will prepare him to do anything against you. So that you never get appreciation from top management.

Such a boss will try that you can’t meet the senior management. He makes sure to lessen the communication between coworkers.

Insecure Boss Wants No One To Succeed
He’s A Blockade For Everyone Else In The Office

He won’t call you to meetings and not allow you to get in front of the boss. They do this to stop you from getting a promotion or benefits. 

Also, he doesn’t want a conspiracy against himself.

How To Cope With Insecure Boss Traits – 4 Measures To Adopt

Well, now we know what the traits of an insecure boss are. And what are the reasons behind this insecure behavior?

But we haven’t discussed yet how to deal with such a boss. What can you do to protect your self-esteem in this regard?

Let’s explore the ways to handle an insecure boss. Also, see the best tips to survive in a toxic environment.

1. Believe In Yourself:

Working with an insecure boss will make you question your abilities at first.

When your boss yells at you, you might start thinking that you’re doing it wrong.

But in reality, it doesn’t reflect your lack of ability. Rather the reason behind this can be your good performance is threatening your boss.

Be Firm In The Thought That You Are Enough
Believe In Yourself

So it’s not you; it’s him who is causing all this chaos. What you need to do is keep a positive mindset and embrace yourself.

Be sure about your self-esteem, and never let anyone belittle you.

2. Work On Your Reputation:

You need to build strong relationships all over the organization because your insecure boss might be playing a game to destroy your reputation.

But make sure that you don’t threaten your boss while doing so because your involvement outside the team will make him feel threatened.

Improve Your Image In The Organization
Work On Your Reputation

Yet, the best advantage over an insecure boss is to be indispensable in the organization.

And the best thing is to make your boss feel safer with you than without you.

3. Keep Him Alive:

If you are thinking of triggering your boss’s insecurity, don’t do that because this will result in misery for everyone.

Instead, you can try to make your boss believe that everything is under his control.

Make him a part of your success and tell him that he helped you a lot.

Make Your Boss Feel Safer With You
Keep Him Alive

If you have any suggestions or questions, use a language that shows you respect him.

You can often tell him that you like his way of management and his working style.

4. Indulge In Other Channels:

If you are working with an insecure boss, he will never tell you that your ideas are great.

So forget about getting appreciated for your efforts because such a boss will worry about his status only.

And he will do his best to make his head high. Showing the top management that he is the best in the organization.

Insecure Boss Traits
Indulge In Other Channels

You can’t sit in a corner waiting for the right time. You need to make relations with other sponsors in the organization.

So they can help you to indulge in other projects and forums.

Frequent Asked Questions

How To Deal With An Insecure Boss At Work?

The best way so far to deal with an insecure boss at work is to confront this matter face to face. Try to arrange a meeting with your boss and talk to them. An insecure boss would love to have an audience or ignore the invitation. But you should try it anyway.

What To Do About A Boss Who Doesn’t Like You?

You should follow some important steps. According to these, you should try to stay involved in important matters. Giving honest compliments can also help. Or you should stay close to your boss and don’t go unnoticed.

What Do You Do When Your Boss Shows Favoritism?

First of all, do speak up for yourself and say No where there is a need. Keep things professional and remain your trust intact. Then you should figure out what the problem is and try to solve it. Don’t accept the favoritism and speak for yourself.

What If Your Boss Is Unfair And Disrespectful?

Your boss may be rude to you because he wants to show that he has power and authority. What you need to do is find the reason behind this behavior and stay positive while doing this.

Conclusion

If you spot many of these insecurities in your boss, then there’s no need to worry. Still, there is hope to survive at work.

But if your company doesn’t seem to cooperate with you in dealing with an insecure boss’s traits.

Then you can try out to find a new job. But if that’s not possible for you, then you can use other ways.

Like developing skills in case, your boss blocks your progression.

You should keep your mental health as a priority because you should be there for yourself. Try to survive the job and play the long game for the sake of your career.

Drop a comment below to share your thoughts on this.

Last Updated on 3 years by Assma Riaz

Assma Riaz

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