We all want to be great bosses. Being a great boss means more than simply delivering bottom line results (although that too is part of the mix). It’s also about creating a great culture, building a winning team, hitting important non-financial goals, etc. Poor leadership negatively affects the workplace and can send productivity into a downspin. What are the rules, then, for being a great boss?
Watch our blog this week as Wayne presents you with five tips on becoming a great boss and inspiring loyalty, dedication, and happiness in your employees. We look forward to hearing your experiences with great – or not so great – bosses. Please share your comments. Thanks!
As always a great subject and a great presentation.
Two examples of Bad Bosses stand out in my mind (and I have been around for 79 years!). The first one was an Executive VP of a large public company who was fond of putting nothing in writing and saving everything everyone else wrote!
The second was a Divisional VP/GM of that same company. He continually used large meetings with large groups of participants to discuss the same topics without an agenda. I always believed these meetings were for him to make decisions that he should have been making on his own.
That company eventually filed bankruptcy!
Thanks, James. Your examples are great – in a kind of bad way, I mean.
I worked for a mechanical contractor about 20 years ago. I was walking into the office behind the owner. The owner of the company stepped right on a crushed coke can that was on the walkway in front of the entry door. I reached down to pick it up and as i was coming up, I realized something was wrong with this picture. I was an employee who cared more about the appearance of his business than he did.
In my late teens, I worked for a company that made orthotics. I had broken a leg hinge just when the boss walked in and I hid it behind my back because I was afraid of the outcome. The boss looked at me and asked what was behind my back. To my surprise, when I pulled it out to show him, he gently sat me down and told me there was nothing i could destroy that would loose his trust in me. it was only my choice to hide something that could ruin that trust. A great man with a kind heart who understood where i was at and reached in to teach me the right way of doing things.
Wow, two excellent stories! Thanks, Warren.
Thanks Wayne,
One idea I have been told which gives me a good feel for employees is recognition; I try to speak employees’ names whenever possible. This has carried me a long way in my management style.
Thanks, Tim. Good call.
Bad boss: CEO hired her best friend for a CFO position. Friend’s only qualification was bank secretary for several years and admin assistant prior. New CFO immediately turned department against her by pushing out anyone who was qualified to do the CFO job.
Good boss: regularly communicated senior management’s vision and strategy, and explained how they specifically impacted our department. Held monthly round-table meetings with the department. Scheduled herself to overlap shift-change so she was available for all employees. She laughed at herself when she made a mistake – really let us feel like she was one of the team, but was always professional enough to be trusted to lead.
Wow, talk about a contrast in leader competence! Thanks, Chrissy.
I had a good boss when working for a tech company as project manager: he listened to my problems and offered very down to earth workable advice, which enabled me to excel. Win – win. His advice was to look at the work, break it down into parts and divide it into time slots. It worked!!
He had confidence in me, and that made me do my best in return. My current bosses (small family company i.e. Mum and Dad) are not planning an
exit (they are 78 and 80 yrs), not sharing goals, run an expectancy policy (i.e. they expect everyone to anticipate what needs to be done without clear strategies). They cannot stand criticism and play newcomers down as inexperienced. They micromanage everything (seriously: where to staple the files in the corner of documents to safe on file space when all files are eventually stacked!!!!). No marketing strategies: “word of mouth has always worked,” but expecting the business to double turnover each year…
Thanks for your feedback, Sandra. I’m sorry the fambiz has yet to see the light.