12 Most Appealing Boss Behaviors

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Great bosses, like great coaches, get the most out of their players. If you’re lucky enough to work for one, it means you’ll develop skills more quickly, develop skills you never thought you had, advance in your career, and if you’re really lucky, enjoy coming to work every day.

Here are the 12 most appealing boss behaviors — behaviors appealing not only to a boss’s direct reports, but also to the bosses of the boss. 

1. Wants you to succeed
A great boss takes great satisfaction in helping an employee achieve results. This foundational aspect of the relationship is, more than anything, what builds the employee’s self-confidence, loyalty and passion for the job. In contrast, a boss who wants to keep the employee down and hog the spotlight creates a team of underachievers who will leave for greener pastures at the first opportunity. 

2. Always has time to talk
Just as great salespeople make you feel like you’re their only customer, great bosses make you feel like you’re their only responsibility. The door is always open. No issue is too pressing to distract their attention from the problem you are discussing, no matter how trivial it may seem. This is smart business. If the boss doesn’t appear to care about the employee’s problems, why should the employee care? 

3. Turns mistakes into teaching opportunities
A great boss doesn’t scream at you in the heat of battle for something you’re in the midst of screwing up. All that accomplishes is emotional flare-ups, shame and resentment. Instead, a great boss takes you aside later, in a period of calm, and goes over what happened. Part of that conversation may indeed be unpleasant, but you’ll come away knowing how to do better next time. Instead of fearing the next challenging situation, you’ll welcome it. 

4. Keeps you on your toes
Because great bosses want you to succeed, they don’t mind giving you tough love. They’ll push you to do better, point out mistakes and poke around in your business to make sure you’re putting in the hours and not taking shortcuts. A great boss I had even went so far as to call customers I called on that week to see if I showed up when I said I did, and if so, how the call went. It felt intrusive, but looking back, it made me a more productive sales rep than I ever would have become otherwise.  

5. Doesn’t micromanage
Even though great bosses keep you on your toes, they do it selectively, not 24/7. As any victim of micromanagement knows, a boss who constantly looks over your shoulder saps every ounce of creative energy out of you. It’s a slow, painful death. A great boss, in complete contrast, leaves matters in your hands, and can even make you feel at times like you’re working without a net. Feeling that independence and exposure to risk makes a job exciting and builds a sense of ownership in an employee.  

6. Has consistent expectations
When you work for a certain type of bad boss, you come to the office every day in a state of anxiety. If one day you’re being told that filling out detailed reports is your main priority, and the next day you’re being told entertaining customers is your main priority, you’re bound to get confused, and never know whether you’re about to be fired or promoted. On the other hand, if you’ve been working for a great boss for any length of time, you’ll know what the priorities are without anything being said at all. 

7. Has high expectations
Great bosses have high hopes for you — maybe higher than yours. A good boss praises you for a job well done and asks how you can do even better next time. The great boss gives you opportunities to further your education and take on new work challenges. 

8. Conducts formal performance reviews
Everybody knows daily encouragement and “attaboys” improve morale, but employees benefit even more from regularly scheduled, comprehensive performance reviews. Employees need and appreciate detailed feedback, even when it’s not all positive. And, formal reviews are an opportunity to set new expectations and build a clear career path. A boss who never has time for performance reviews, or doesn’t know how to conduct them, will never be more than mediocre. 

9. Communicates clearly and directly
Great bosses know how to make themselves understood. They know how to explain an assignment so employees can get going on it with confidence, and they know how to evaluate results so employees know exactly what they did well and what needs improvement. With a great boss, you always know where you stand; you’re never waiting for the other shoe to drop. 

10. Is decisive
From the employee’s perspective, “yes” is exciting, “no” is disappointing, and “maybe” is intolerable. Nothing kills enthusiasm and productivity like a boss who can’t make up his mind, who dithers and fiddles while Rome burns. Great bosses make reasoned decisions, and make them as quickly as circumstances allow. This keeps the team motivated and perhaps more importantly, moving. 

11. Takes responsibility
When great bosses make mistakes, they take ownership rather than lay off blame on subordinates. This not only goes a long way toward earning the respect and loyalty of subordinates, it sets an example and a high standard for everyone in the organization. 

12. Will fire you without hesitation
As soon as great bosses conclude that an employee is a hopelessly bad fit, they proceed with the termination. Getting fired is bad, of course — but stagnating in an unfulfilling, dead-end job for years or decades is far worse. Great bosses don’t allow that to happen; instead, they make the tough decision that gives an employee a chance to find the right fit, to pursue the best possible career.

As this list demonstrates, being a standout boss isn’t easy. Notice that all of the 12 items stress interpersonal skills rather than technical proficiency. This is why promoting, for instance, star sales reps into sales managers usually backfires. Being great at doing something won’t necessarily make you great at helping others do it.

Have you ever had a boss with some or all of these qualities? What qualities can you add to my list of appealing boss behaviors?

Brad Shorr

http://straightnorth.com
Brad Shorr is Director of B2B Marketing for Straight North, a full service Internet marketing agency with headquarters in Chicago. A blogger since 2005, he writes frequently on social media, content marketing, SEO and business strategy.

The 7 Things I Learned When I Got Fired (Again)

Ok, my exit from running the wealth management businesses of Bank of America was called a restructuring. But it sure felt like I was fired. I learned a lot of lessons the first time I was fired. (See “What I Learned When I Got Fired…The First Time.”)

Here are the lessons from the second go-round:

Lesson Number 1: If it feels too good to be true, it probably is. Were you ever offered a job that seemed to be tailor-made for you? When I was asked to join Bank of America to turn around its Merrill Lynch and US Trust wealth management businesses, I couldn’t have scripted a more perfect opportunity: one that was challenging but that I believed was do-able. It was so perfect that when I received the offer, but was not allowed to meet any of my soon-to-be peers (to maintain confidentiality) or anyone on the Board (because that was never done), I shrugged it off. What could go wrong?? (I know, I know, cue deafening alarm bells.)

Lesson Number 2: The power of culture. Happily, my bet that the Merrill Lynch Financial Advisors retained a culture of underlying client focus was correct.

Unhappily, my implicit bet that the parent company culture was one I could navigate effectively was incorrect. Heck, I thought, I had managed to do well at Smith Barney and at Sanford Bernstein, and those two corporate cultures had little in common, besides an openness to energetic debate. But in fact, at this new shop, there was a melding of several cultures brought together through acquisition and changing through a leadership transition; thus, while I was learning the culture, it was itself shifting and changing. I asked for, and was given, lots of advice from lots of people on how to navigate it, sometimes conflicting.[1] I'm no shrinking violet, so I knew there was no real alignment of values when I found myself second- and third-guessing my comments in management team meetings before I made them.

Lesson Number 3: Face time still matters. I was based in New York, the company’s headquarters were in Charlotte, the real center of power was in Boston and other senior managers were based in California. And most of the management team spent a good deal of time traveling.

As the new kid on the block, I found it hard to achieve a camaraderie with the team; it’s hard to be part of the inside jokes when you’re not there or you aren’t having the few minutes swapping stories while grabbing a coffee between meetings. I was never part of the meetings-before-the-meeting, or the meetings-after-the-meeting, or the “real” meeting; I was just part of the official meeting (which in some companies can be the least important meeting of them all). And, no, Telepresence and all the other technology didn’t help a bit with this.

Lesson Number 4: A sponsor matters even more. And in part this was because I didn’t have time to develop a real sponsor at the company. The CEO who hired me had told me he would stay in his role for at least two more years; he announced his retirement less than two months later. This left me without the person who was most invested in my successful transition to the company, and with significantly changed marching orders. While I asked (and asked and asked) for feedback on how I was doing, I lacked a real sponsor at the senior leadership table….and my peers who were also negatively impacted in the restructuring were similarly “square pegs.” This was in contrast to prior jobs, when I’ve had people who invested a lot of time in me; in some cases, this took years off of my career trajectory.

Lesson Number 5: Business results are not everything I am not 
a dumb woman; I realized I wasn’t part of the “inner circle.” But I mistakenly believed that if my team delivered strong business results – and, as I repeatedly told the team, if we were the business no-one had to worry about – we would be successful. But on the day I left, the business was ahead of budget and gaining share.

The Good News: A strong outside network helps a lot. I was fortunate that I have maintained a strong outside network over the years. While my internal network faded pretty quickly (many, many fewer holiday cards from former BofA colleagues that holiday season!), I was touched by how helpful people outside of the company were.

Research has identified networking as the number 1 “unwritten rule of success” in business. It also shows that one's next professional opportunity is more likely to come from one's extended network than from friends. And, in fact, my recent investment in 85 Broads (itself a professional woman’s network) was the result of a string of nine business introductions, one contact leading to another, starting with a conversation with a seatmate on an airplane a few years ago and resulting in the announcement a few months ago.

The Best News: Gratitude helps even more. I don’t want to get too "new age-y," but I am grateful. Even on the day I was fired, I was grateful. Not to take anything away from all of the hard work over the years, but it's pure dumb luck that I had the good fortune to be born into the extraordinary circumstances of this day and age, and that I have had the opportunities I have had. It could have easily gone another way.

Oh, and a big glass of wine (or three) the night I was chucked out didn’t hurt either.....

(1) The classic was when I was told by a Very Important Senior Person that Merrill Lynch needed to be "led, not managed" within days of being told by another Very Important Senior Person that Merrill needed to be "managed, not led." (Cue music from "Jaws.")

Posted by:Sallie Krawcheck

This is a great story!!

A GINGHAM DRESS

A lady in a faded gingham dress and her husband, dressed in a homespun threadbare suit, stepped off the train in Boston , and walked timidly without an appointment into the Harvard University President's outer office.

The secretary could tell in a moment that such backwoods, country hicks
had no business at Harvard & probably didn't even deserve to be in
Cambridge .."We'd like to see the president," the man said softly.

"He'll be busy all day," the secretary snapped.

"We'll wait," the lady replied.

For hours the secretary ignored them, hoping that the couple would finally
become discouraged and go away.

They didn't, and the secretary grew frustrated and finally decided to
disturb the president, even though it was a chore she always regretted.

"Maybe if you see them for a few minutes, they'll leave," she said to him!

He sighed in exasperation and nodded. Someone of his importance obviously didn't have the time to spend with them, and he detested gingham dresses and homespun suits cluttering up his outer office.

The president, stern faced and with dignity, strutted toward the couple.

The lady told him, "We had a son who attended Harvard for one year. He
loved Harvard. He was happy here. But about a year ago, he was accidentally killed. My husband and I would like to erect a memorial to him, somewhere on campus."

The president wasn't touched. He was shocked.

"Madam," he said, gruffly, "we can't put up a statue for every person who
attended Harvard and died. If we did, this place would look like a
cemetery."

"Oh, no," the lady explained quickly. "We don't want to erect a statue .
We thought we would like to give a building to Harvard."

The president rolled his eyes. He glanced at the gingham dress and
homespun suit, then exclaimed, "A building! Do you have any earthly idea
how much a building costs? We have over seven and a half million dollars in the physical buildings here at Harvard."

For a moment the lady was silent. The president was pleased. Maybe he
could get rid of them now.

The lady turned to her husband and said quietly, "Is that all it cost to
start a university? Why don't we just start our own?"

Her husband nodded. The president's face wilted in confusion and
bewilderment.

Mr and Mrs Leland Stanford got up and walked away, traveling to Palo Alto,
California where they established the university that bears their name,
Stanford University, a memorial to a son that Harvard no longer cared
about.

You can easily judge the character of others by how they treat those who
they think can do nothing for them.

A TRUE STORY by Malcolm Forbes

The Importance Of Never Giving Up

As you may have gathered I am a big sports fan and I see many parallels between sporting achievement and achievement in the business world. This summer I was struck by a number of examples of athletes not giving up when all seemed to be lost. The picture above is probably the most striking I encountered. It shows the 400m Final at the World Athletics Championships. Christine Ohuruogu had been behind for the entire race and looked to be beaten. She kept going down the finishing straight and managed to dip at the line. The result was that she beat Amantle Montsho clocking the exact same time of 49.41 seconds, but it was the Briton who was deemed the winner by four thousandths of a second.
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The other example was watching Bradley Wiggins at the World Road Cycling Championships – Time Trial. He would have known that part way into the race he stood no chance of winning gold, as Tony Martin was in unbelievable form and already ahead on time. What impressed me is that he kept going through the pain right to the very end of the race, and in the end claimed a silver medal by 2.25 seconds from Fabian Cancellara.

Over the years I have been involved in enough programmes and projects to know that I will always come up against those that say “We have no chance of delivering on time.  We might as well re-baseline now!” The problem I have with this is that as soon as you concede then you stand no chance of meeting your objective no matter how outlandish the possibility might seem. Just like Christine Ohuruogu and Bradley Wiggins you have to stick to your own game plan and make every effort to achieve the outcome you are after. There might also be that point where the reality sets in that you aren’t going to get the gold. Do you throw your arms in the air pack up your toys and go home or do you focus on the next goal of getting as close as possible to winning?

In my experience many times I have seen what might have been a two week miss turn into a two month miss and significant additional cost because people take their foot of the gas when winning is no longer likely. We have to learn to live with the discomfort that we might fail in order to succeed more times than most. Too often there is the temptation to not push through that final bit of pain when we are just on the verge of success.

I still find it strange that people somehow think that success will just be a walk in the park and everything will go to plan. I have a simple three step strategy to delivering success in a business context.

1. Things will go wrong – don’t be surprised!
2. You will need to get creative and be clear on what would need to be true for you to be successful.
3. Never give up until all is said and done.

 

What are your strategies for success in business?