My newish supervisor has terrible communication skills, resulting in a fair amount of chaos. From my standpoint, better communication would solve many of the current problems. Do I point this out? I don't want to appear adversarial, but the chaos has made a previously pleasant working environment into a stressful one. I think that this person might be too insecure to take such criticisim constructively. How long do you wait out a manager with poor leadership skills?

It's pretty presumptuous of you to think you know exactly what is wrong with someone who outranks you and to think the problem is something so soft as "better communication". Honestly, if you brought that to me (your boss's boss), I'd barely pay attention to you. If you want to make an impact on me, document very specific instances where you think communication would have helped and bring me your solutions. I need to know you actually have something to offer and are not a complainer. Show me specifically how your manager displays poor leadership and please avoid whining about nonsense.

Anonymous wrote:Keep your mouth shut. We had a supervisor ordered training venting bonding session where we were encouraged to criticize management. I did. I am now unemployed.

I had a friend learn this lesson years ago. He complained to his supervisor's boss about his supervisor. The supervisor fired him. When you have a problem with your boss, it is usually gong to stay your problem.

Update: Another co-worker (who can't keep anything to herself) beat me to the punch, independently. The two of them were already on bad terms anyway, so better her than me. She ended up confronting our supervisor about various messes, and a few positive changes actually came out of it. I think that things are just so bad that at this point our supervisor knows and is desperate.

There was a 360 survey done when the supervisor was first appointed, but it was at the very start of the appointment, so there was really nothing on which to base an assessment, at the time. And there are some leadership courses involved, but I think that we're looking at a decade for any real improvement. It's just sad, because our previous supervisor was so strong and awesome. But the other team members and myself love our jobs, and don't feel like we're the ones that should have to leave because of one person.

If you can give her a specific suggestion, i.e. "Kathy, can you email the team about a deadline for this?" then do so. Do not tell her to improve her communication skills.