There is a saying that employees do not leave their jobs or company, they leave their bosses.

Many business professionals agree with this saying when they think about their own work experiences. Because of poor relations with the boss, they can remember leaving a job they loved or a group of people with whom they enjoyed working.

Here are 4 sure ways managers can demoralize their employees and send them running for the door:

Embarrass employees publicly and often!

Some managers believe that managing by fear and intimidation is the best way to get results in the workplace.  These managers do not trust employees to do their work otherwise. Whether it is the managers’ frequent emotional outbursts or their belittling  words of sarcasm,  the effect on their employees is the same–the employees feel humiliated.  Embarrassing employees publicly creates an atmosphere of resentment.  In this environment, employees will find a way to get back at their manager for his humiliation of them in public.  Sometimes, it is even group retribution of some type.

Tell employees as little as possible!

The saying, Information is Power,  is a truism.  It makes sense that we are only as good as the information we have.  The better our information and the more we know, the more valuable we are.  Some managers purposely withhold information from employees  in a misguided effort to retain power over employees in the workplace, however.  For other managers, they may just be poor communicators who do not understand the importance of keeping employees informed about workplace operations.  Whatever the reason, employees start to resent the manager for her failure to communicate.

Blame others for mistakes!

Managers who blame their staff, their boss, their peers and anyone else for their mistakes lose credibility with their employees.  These managers become untrustworthy in the eyes of their staff. Employees begin to wonder if their manager uses them as the scapegoat to senior executives when issues arise.  The inability of the manager to accept responsibility for an undesirable outcome creates an environment of distrust.  It is often manifested in excess written communication by staff who seek to document that they are not responsible for an organizational action.

Keep the job as difficult as it has always been!

Encouraging innovation is an important skill that managers need to possess for this decade.  In the age where technology and the free flow of information provides many opportunities to improve organizational processes, employees have little patience for continuing outdated processes that the manager clearly has the power to change.   Managers who are unwilling to remove obvious  organizational barriers that hinder unit effectiveness send a message to employees that mediocre performance is acceptable.  Performance management becomes a challenge in this environment.

There is a quantifiable cost for poor management skills.  How many good people do organizations lose because of poor management skills?  How much staff and executive time is wasted because of poor managerial approaches?  When quantified, the cost of poor management often far exceeds the cost of training and development.