The domino effect of workplace politics
The thing about the “I’m the boss, I’m in charge, I can fire whoever I want” posture is that, generally, employees have alliances.
Not merely to the company, but to their coworkers—the people who make the organization what it is.
Firing the wrong person for the wrong reason can create a domino effect that can encourage many other subordinates to leave as well.
For small teams, particularly, the results of this can be disastrious, to the extent that, eventually, the manager ironically has very little leverage with which to expend.
He can’t fire people without jeopardizing the company, because he needs their services (and experience) to stay in business. And because he’s reliant on them, he has almost no power, authority, or influence to get them to comply.
The alternative—you guessed it—is to be the kind of boss where your employee’s #1 allegiance is with you. To be someone people actually enjoy being around, who listens and responds intelligently, as well as someone who supports the team and gets out of productive people’s way.
What you don’t do is be a micro-manager. What you don’t do is be bad boss. What you don’t do is use power and authority as a substitute for earning trust and enrollment. Or dismiss a team player because you don’t always get your way.
Leading upwards turns out to be a great way to invest in more dominos. The inverse is to virtually guarantee that you’re the left the last one standing.