Archive for the Management Category
5 Leadership Lessons Learned From Remarkable Bosses
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At some point in our lives, we’ve all had The Boss From Hell: the control freak, the personal-email snoop, the guy or gal who times your bathroom breaks and deducts the time you spend at the water cooler from your paycheck.
But what about the other kind of boss? The kind who actually treats you like a real human being instead of warm body?
Truly exemplary bosses are few and far between, but the good news is, like true love, they exist. And also like true love, a really remarkable boss might come your way once in a lifetime.
What Makes a Truly Remarkable Boss?
One thing that separates a remarkable boss from an ordinary boss is that they have a personal code of ethics that they stick to, come what may. We’re not talking about the boss who walks around the office in a ‘Save the Whales’ T-shirt, rattling a collection box and singing Kumbayah. But rather the boss who, when the going gets tough, proves that they are worthy of their title of leader.
I’ve been lucky enough to have several truly exceptional bosses in my life. Those bosses embodied leadership, and led by action rather than words. I feel lucky to have met them, and years later, I still count them as an inspiration.
So what makes a truly remarkable boss? Here’s a rundown of lessons I’ve learned from top bosses.
1) Remarkable bosses actually listen to your ideas
New hires usually come to a company bubbling with ideas on how to make things better. Even the old deckhands can be coaxed into revealing a few pearls of wisdom they’ve been nursing over the years.
A great boss is one who gives every employee face time – not just the big players, but also the little guy who makes the coffee — who may have just had a brainstorm on how to make the company a million dollars. The worth of the idea is irrelevant; being taken seriously by your boss is a valuable perk you won’t find listed in the employee handbook.
2) Remarkable bosses have your back
My first boss earned my undying loyalty during my first week on the job, when he stepped smoothly into the firing line between me and a screaming customer. Was she having a problem? No problem. A free product materialized out of a bag, the customer stopped yelling, everyone went away happy. I was spared being the newbie who got torn to shreds in front of everyone on her first day.
I never forgot the lesson my boss taught me, which is that a true leader always protects his followers, even if that means taking the heat themselves.
On the polar opposite end of the spectrum, I’ll never forget (or forgive) the boss who, during my first month at a new firm, had me personally do the “letting go” of a popular long-term staff member who had been slacking. The experience itself wasn’t as traumatic as the loathing glares I got from from his co-workers for a few short months after that until I mercifully managed to find a new position.
My boss saved face by asking me to do his dirty work, but in the process he lost my respect for him as a leader. It is easier to hire a new employee than it is to get back the respect of an existing team member you’ve thrown under the bus.
3) Remarkable bosses practice what they preach
Remarkable bosses lead by example. They don’t see themselves as being above the rules just because they made the rules. If your boss takes you to task for being 5 minutes late while he ambles in around lunchtime reading the paper and holding a breakfast wrap from Panini Garden, he’s sending mixed messages to the team, which can quickly grow into morale-ruining resentment.
The truly remarkable boss acts as if he himself was an employee at his own company. If he asks employees for openness, he may set his desk out in the open, eschewing the traditional office. If he wants his workers to go above and beyond, he will stay late alongside his team and order them pizza when they work overtime on a big project. In doing so, he earns that priceless commodity: his employee’s admiration.
4) Remarkable bosses learn your name and use it often
One thing that both psychologists and the owners of Starbucks have in common: they both know the power our own name holds over us. Call out “Order number 173!” in a bustling coffee shop and you may have to call it five times before the order is picked up. Call out “Suzanne!” and ten bucks says that Suzanne will have her coffee in hand in five seconds.
I once had the demoralizing experience of being laid off by a man who didn’t even know my name after three years working at the company. If it had been a large firm, that might have been forgivable, but we only had 30 employees. And that man was our CEO. Being laid off was bad enough, but being laid off by someone who apparently hadn’t even registered my presence in three years of full time work was nothing short of soul-crushing.
Learning someone’s name equals respect. So memorize your employee’s names, even if you have no direct contact with them. How can you lead your company if you don’t know who you are leading?
5) Remarkable bosses make time for you
The demands of the average workday can push even the calmest of us to the ends of our rope. We get snippy with people, we hunch over our computers and scowl at our bulging physical or email Inboxes, we groan when we get yet another meeting request.
Whenever I find myself starting to bristle at the new hire who has just bumbled up to my desk and is asking me ten thousand questions on my lunch break, I take a deep breath and visualize the welcoming smile my last boss would give me whenever I entered his office. Whether I’d planned a formal meeting or had just shown up unannounced, he would always react the same way. He’d motion me to sit down, give me his full attention, and smile with a gruff, “Now, what can I do for you?”
Maybe I’d walked in just as he was getting ready to leave for lunch. Maybe his Inbox was as scary as mine. The point is, he never let that show. He always made time for me, and in return I always felt like like I could talk to him, no matter what the subject. In any company, large or small, good communication is the cornerstone of a healthy and long-lasting boss-employee relationship.
Some of us are born to be great leaders; others have to work at it. If you are struggling with a boss who may not be treating you with respect, ask yourself this: would I work for this person if I wasn’t being paid to do so? Bosses who treat their employees as they themselves would like to be treated earn their undying loyalty and respect, which can literally make or break a company when times get tough. In this day and age, that is a rare thing indeed.
Your Turn
What was one leadership quality you admired from a present or old boss?
Reyna Ramli is a writer for CareerBliss.com, an online community dedicated to helping people find happiness in the workplace. When Reyna is not writing, she enjoys cooking, working out, and reading fashion blogs and magazines.
Why Safety Needs to be a Company Priority
Healthy workers are happier workers.
When a business demonstrates to their employees that they care about each person’s individual health and wellbeing, it results in increased morale and productivity. But when a business doesn’t emphasize safety, the impacts of a work related accident can be felt for years.
A colleague of mine has a desk job that he enjoys, but Lou once had a lucrative job as a forklift driver at a lettuce processing plant. The job was fast paced, and emphasized high productivity and long hours at the expense of safety as forklifts buzzed from room to room at high speed with full loads on their pallets.
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Hire Happy People and Teach Them the Rest
When I first started this blog in 2008, I was prone to depression. I literally felt like I had those huge ankle weights holding me down. Those days don’t happen very much any more. Over the years of studying work happiness, I’ve learned about life happiness, too.
I still feel sad like everyone else. No one can avoid sadness, but my sadness doesn’t last as long as it used to.
Core Happiness
The more work I’ve put into my core happiness, the more resilient I feel. When I fail, I don’t take it as hard as I used to. I shake it off and try something else. It’s this trait that all happy people seem to possess. They never let things bring them so far down that they just give up.
Just so we are clear, I’m not talking about hiring people who aren’t phased by failure. I’m talking about hiring the resilient people who can get knocked down and find a way to see a positive and build on it.
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How to Ask for Help at Work
Have you ever seen a young kid struggle to build up a tower of blocks only to have them fall at the same point every time?
He seems to think if he can just find the right angle or go slower he’ll get past his previous height. Only to get more and more frustrated. He looks at you with tears in his eyes that says, “You better help me right now or I’m going to have a melt down!”
So you go over to him and begin to show him his different options he has. You show him how he could build a wider foundation.
He gets it. The pressure eases off of him. He’s happy again and pick up the next block to start all over again. This time you stay with him and help him through the process.
That’s the beauty of asking someone for help. The hard part is being willing to step back before the frustration before your mind explodes, setting aside your ego and asking for help.
If you can ask for help in the right way you can actually build a stronger relationship and improve their happiness.
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5 Ways to Recognize and Utilize Talent
Editor’s note: This is a guest post Mike King of Learn This.
Talent is an interesting topic and one that is SO critical in the workforce. Talent makes the difference between the top performers poor performers. It can be cultivated and enhanced. Unfortunately the biggest problem is that talent is not always recognized by those who can see a use for it and individuals do not always see or even know how they can use it. Luckily sometimes talents are obvious and people do utilize them in their life and work, but more often than not, talent is lost because it is difficult to recognize. Here are 5 specific ways to recognize and utilize talent!
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A Letter that You Wish Your Boss Would Write
Editor’s note: This is a guest from Lisa H. (aka RunningBear) of Getting to Zen
What makes my boss so great is that he treats his employees like human beings and not like resources that are there just to help him achieve his goals. Although he is my manager, everything that I do for him feels collaborative (even my performance reviews).
As I was scouring the internet to increase my understanding of boss-employee relationships, I came across a hypothetical note a boss wrote to his employees. What I liked most about note was that it provided great insight on how to establish a good relationship with your boss from a boss’s perspective. I liked the idea so much that I decided to write one of my own.
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7 Ways to Have a Good Relationship With Your Boss
Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Lisa of Getting to Zen. I want to add that this post can also be used for small business owners who need to improve their relationships with their clients. A happy client is just like a happy boss.
I always knew that having a good relationship with my managers was important, however, I didn’t realize how important it was until four years into my career. Looking back on my working life, I could have had many more opportunities for advancement had I worked on building strong relationships with those I reported to.
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Why is the Game Angry Birds so Popular?
There are too many iPhone apps to keep track of. There are over 300,000 apps available on iTunes. When you include all the other smart phone apps available it’s head spinning. One of the most popular apps is the game Angry Birds. It’s #1 in many countries.
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How to Improve Traditional Management Training
Editor’s Note: This is a guest post by Phil LeNir of CoachingOurselves.com. As many of you noticed I’ve been writing more from a personal view of careers and personal development. I published this piece on organizational development because anyone can apply these concepts to their business and life.
There are a lot of management development training programs out there. They help managers and employees to improve their skill sets and become better at what they do.
But what if there was a way to apply self-help concepts to the corporate world? What if managers could train each other, learn through discussions, and be inspired by stimulating material?
Keep reading to find out how we found ourselves doing exactly that.
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How to Use Performance Reviews to Make Employees Happier at Work
Editor’s Note: This is a guest post from Sean Conrad of the Halogen blog
A lot of employees and managers experience performance appraisals as a negative process. This is true even for employees who are generally good performers. At the core, the reason why we experience performance appraisals negatively is because we are being judged and rated by another.
But you could change the whole experience and improve the business value of performance appraisals simply by changing their focus. What if the goal of your performance appraisal process was to find way to encourage and inspire people to be happy at work and to be their best, rather than to critique, rate and rank them?
There are several things an individual manager or better yet an entire organization can do to make performance appraisals a positive experience that encourages and inspires:
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