What makes a good boss?
Let’s assume you are new in the role of a manager and you just want to be a “good boss”. If you ask around, the advices you will get are about productivity, having your team to accomplish the tasks on time, delivering good quality and, of course, being on top all the time. However, this doesn’t happen over night and, in order to be able to deliver all the above, you need to be able to lead your team in that direction. And because we are working with human beings, before pushing for any performance, just remember that you work with people, for people, through people. So, I am just trying to list below few of the things I believe could make you something that we call a “good boss”.
High emotional intelligence - well, this is something difficult to explain. But, you need to find the moments when to push for something, when to listen to your employees, when to even shut up and give them space or to understand when they need motivation. I would recommend to read books about emotional intelligence as they have some practical exercises on how to get there. But, for the beginning, in order to be able to display emotional intelligence, you need to be…
Self-aware - of what the team can do, of the weaknesses they have, of the limits you and them might have. If you have in mind only the final target that you need to reach, you might lose the people on the way, hence you might lose your target. Always look around! Have a check of the team and also a self check as much as possible. Understand the context, the people, the challenges and it might get easier for you to reach the target.
Capacity to motivate people - some managers are really good technical wise, but they lack people skills. There is no single key for success when it comes to motivating people. So, find the right way for each of them: some of them might just need to be listened, others needs to be guided step by step, others need tea-buildings, some others need trainings and so on. Know and understand your team, so that you can be able to motivate them when they are down. And, of course, keep a positive trend. If you are all the time un-motivated or if you care only about the deliverables, people will lose their motivation.
Honesty and transparency - show transparency in order to gain their trust. And also show them you trust them by giving them tasks and allowing them to complete them. Of course, there is a risk here as not everybody can be trusted, but this will for sure work with the tight people.
Compassion - imagine that one of your co-workers comes and says the family is sick. Of course, you don’t know the family and maybe you are not even able to help. But, at least, show compassion, ask details about the problem, offer few hours off if they need and remember to ask later about the situation. As simple as it sounds, it can make a huge difference and it will prove you are human.
Willingness to show your mistakes and weaknesses - this goes hand in hand with transparency and honesty. But, this is about being vulnerable. It is all fine if you don’t have an answer in that moment. It will show your employees you are a human as well, you are also learning together with them and you can also guide them through something that you achieved.
Communicate your expectations and way of communication - as we haven’t learnt to read minds, people need to know what you expect, what are their goals and how you want them to communicate with you.
Keep calm when you get a negative feed-back - your reaction when you get a negative feed-back could say more about your character. In general, the way we react to things we don’t like can define our collaboration later. So, even if you hear something you don’t like, just remain calm, understand the situation and talk only afterwards.
If you have other ideas, please feel free to share with me as well. I am also curious what helped you and how you define a “good boss”.
Yours sincerely,
EmKa