I spent 34 of my 40 years in industry in all levels of management with several great companies (IBM and Lockheed Martin). I was always looking to improve my trade to be a better boss. See if any of these signs sound familiar.
Signs that you’re in fact doing a terrific job
managing your team.
Those signs include: You’re able to try new things, you challenge
your employees, and you have a sense of humor.
It’s not always easy being in
charge.
Overseeing others comes with a
ton of pressure. And when you’re in a management position, it can be difficult
to evaluate how you’re doing.
Are you striking the right
balance between commanding respect and appearing accessible? Are your employees
responding well to your style of leadership? Are any of your actions breeding
resentment in the office?
Being a good boss is crucial for your organization — a third of the employees in one survey revealed that they’d quit a job because of a bad manager. But you can’t exactly go wandering around the office begging people to tell you how you’re doing.
You’re better off organizing
employee satisfaction surveys and soliciting feedback from your direct reports.
Take a look at these ways that I
learned from many years as a boss.
Share
the limelight
Does your boss constantly use
the word “I” when associating with success? Do they fail to invite
you to meetings to present your own work?
They may be intentionally
keeping you out of the limelight so that they can stay in it.
This is in the DNA of a bad boss.
These types can become glory hogs and take credit for your hard work. Your best
option is to manage up and understand the real root of the problem.
Always look for ways to share
the credit.
Admit
mistakes
Learning to admit that you’re
wrong is one of the best things you can do for your colleagues.
Ask Lexi Reese, the COO of Gusto and a former Googler, and she’ll tell you the best thing a boss can do is communicate to their reports the type of leader they aspire to be.
Most importantly, the boss
should encourage their reports to let them know when they’re falling short.
If your boss refuses to admit
that they’re wrong, this means they’re not willing to go out of their comfort
zone for you.
A national independent study by
Lynn Taylor Consulting found that 91% of employees said that owning up to one’s
mistakes as a manager was an important factor in employee job satisfaction.
Admitting to mistakes sends a
message to your employees that it’s a safe environment to take smart risks —
and without that, you’re sapping the best of the relationships.
Be
truthful at all costs
A boss who lies is untrustworthy
— not a good foundation for a productive relationship. Some can become so
immune to their own stories that they can convince themselves that the lies are
true. They may legitimize their fibbing
by rationalizing that others do it, deflect this character flaw by pointing the
finger to others.
Other bad bosses just can’t face
the fallout that will result from telling the truth.
You must examine what motivates
your boss to lie. Make sure you have all your facts before you start any
questioning. And remember that it’s best to encourage honesty than to go on the
offense.
Don’t
have favorites
Playing favorites is a great way
to torpedo office morale. If you make it clear that a certain person is the
apple of your eye no matter what, then that’ll just encourage your other
employees to give up on trying to impress you.
Give
feedback freely
Good employees crave feedback to
learn how they can improve and grow. Great bosses are happy to oblige.
Recently, experts have noted
that the feedback process at many
companies is broken because
it’s too subjective. As leadership experts Marcus Buckingham and Ashley Goodall
write in the Harvard Business Review, it’s better to share your personal
reaction to an employee’s behavior than an overall assessment of their
performance.
For example: “This is how
that came across for me,” or “This is what that made me think.”
Offer
more chances to grow
There are few things more
aggravating at work than being kept stagnant with the same routine
responsibilities over a long period of time, especially after you’ve voiced
interest in expanding your level of contribution.
If you feel your sentiments are
going unheard, you may still proactively demonstrate your more strategic skills
on a current project and propose them to your boss.
Always look for ways to contribute
new ideas to your boss’ pet project; get more specific with how your background
and credentials could specifically be better tapped for XYZ initiatives.
With your manager’s permission, offer to volunteer on a related department’s project where your skillset applies, building on your existing credentials. Bosses love initiative.
Try
new things
Good bosses adopt certain methods because they’re the best way of doing things — not because they’ve just fallen into certain habits. The best managers give their employees room to experiment and innovate.
Try new things.
In fact, according to a study
conducted by leadership development consultancy Zenger/Folkman, young people tend to make
better managers partly
because they’re open to change.
Always
treat employees like human beings
Unfortunately, some bosses seem to feel that hurling insults and abuse at people are an effective motivational technique. In most cases, this simply isn’t true. If you value your employees as human beings, then you’re already a huge step above many managers.
Show
your manners
Insecure bosses bark out orders
and behave like divas in order to establish their dominance. If you always say
the magic word and are generally polite, then that’s definitely a good sign.
Give
support
Bosses should build trust with
their employees by providing a reasonable amount of support and guidance.
Obviously, you don’t need to hold anyone’s hand, but throwing people into the
deep end isn’t ideal, either.
Eliminate
obstacles
Bad bosses throw up roadblocks
that make it harder for people to succeed and do their jobs. Great managers
should actively work to make the lives of their employees easier.
Always
express gratitude
Does your boss put you down in
front of others? If you let it go once, it’ll happen over and over again. Good
bosses know they should have this conversation with their employees in private.
Also, consider apologizing to your boss behind closed doors.
While it may sound
counterintuitive to apologize to someone for something that clearly wasn’t your
fault, amazing things happen when you can bring yourself to do so.
Look
for ways to improve coaching
Coaches don’t just sit back on
the sidelines twiddling their thumbs. But they don’t run onto the field and
start playing, either — unless they’re that one scary dad who takes the youth
recreational soccer league way too seriously.
Good bosses are like good
coaches: They command respect and provide the right blend of praise and
constructive criticism to bring out the best in their employees.
Obviously, at the end of the
day, you’re responsible for making the final judgment. But once in a while, if
the situation calls for it, good bosses reach out to their workers to get their
insights and opinions.
Seek
to explain your decisions
Good managers don’t expect
anyone to read their minds. They outline a clear vision and provide their team
with the knowledge and tools to achieve it.
Never
micromanage
Instead look for ways to expand
roles and tasks. Carefully examine the capabilities of your workers in order to
achieve a good balance. Could you give any of them more responsibilities? Is
there anything you can start delegating?
Show
your sense of humor
Be willing to laugh at yourself.
It’s important to never take the joking too far in the office.
That being said, good bosses
take their work seriously — not themselves. It’s good to have a laugh with your
employees.
Show
you appreciate employee dreams
The best bosses are invested in
their employees. That means that they’re actively concerned with the
professional goals and aspirations of their workers.
Many people have had a manager who loved to talk. Rarer — and infinitely more appreciated — are those bosses who are quality listeners. Good listening skills show your employees that you’re seriously considering their opinions and needs.
Take
an interest in employees’ lives
Good bosses don’t cross the line
into nosiness. Still, they care enough to ask about peoples’ summer plans,
kids, and elderly parents. This interest will demonstrate to employees that
their boss actually cares about them, making both parties more invested in
their working relationship.
Always tailor your
approach
Different employees have
different needs. “One size fits all” just isn’t going to cut it in
the workplace. The best bosses are flexible. This allows them to fulfill all
sorts of roles in order to better cater to the needs of their workers.
Every manager should get to know
the people on their team. Specifically, what makes them tick, what
opportunities they might want, what they need to get better at, what feedback
they need to have.
The bottom line
As you start following through on your these actions, you’ll show your employees that not only are you on their side but that they can trust you to help them in any way you can.
Be
prepared: Your employees might be a little skeptical at your change of heart at
first. If you haven’t been an attentive and team-centered manager in the past,
they probably won’t have 100% confidence in you right away. The good news is,
these steps will put you back on the right path—not only to improve your own
management skills, but to help your entire team succeed.
Do you have a lesson about making your creativity better you can
share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section
below?
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on, and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on Facebook, Twitter, Quora, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.
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CoachKrzyzewski certainly understood the leadership qualities of being an effective leader, didn’t he? Spot on. I have been in the military and business world for forty years and I often get asked what leader qualities contribute most to a coaching leadership style. This is a question I have studied on several occasions.
Favorite coaching leadership style
Leaders should be reliable without being predictable. They should be consistent without being anticipated.
Developing these qualities is a lifelonglearning process. You are never done learning. Every great leader always looks for ways to improve on all of these qualities.
Leadership can be especially challenging for entrepreneurs. Balancing the need to run a business (i.e., products, investors, customers, etc.) and the need to lead company personnel is quite a task.
Effective leader qualities as an entrepreneur mean that you can “make things happen,” instead of just “letting things happen.” The quality of leader influence involvement is required in many activities. It is involved in a variety of situations and problems, from the very simple to the very complex.
Leaders must influence others in order to achieve goals, and they must gain the respect of followers in order to influence them. This is no easy task, but if you want to have the respect of your followers you have many trusted leader qualities.
Here are many leader qualities Digital Spark Marketing uses with clients to improve their ability to develop to be the best leaders they can be:
Coaching leadership style … foster teamwork
Drucker makes an interestingpoint when he said that leaders don’t train themselves not to say “I.” He’s implying that leaders innately work with others and let the team get the credit. They don’t force themselves to say “we.” “We” is natural for them, and it’s the way they’ve always thought.
We believe that employing an “employee of the month” or a “who gets credit for what” attitude is not a good process. You work as a team when you don’t care who gets the credit.
Avoid decisions in the heat of the moment
Do you know those bosses that get all riled up and then start rapid-firing people? That’s not a leader. That’s a trigger-happy manager on a power trip—and there’s a difference. A leader waits until the heat of the moment has passed so that he or she can give solid thought to the situation before coming to a conclusion.
Coaching leadership style examples … encourage growth in others
Some companies follow the motto: “hire for character, train for skill.” You hire people that are eager to learn and are very “raw.” They don’t have a ton of skills; but as a leader, you teach them, and they become better. They grow with your company and contribute to its success.
You see this with football coaches. In football coaching, it’s almost unheard of for someone with no experience to be hired as the head coach of a team. Most people start in a low-level position (i.e., video coordinator, quality control assistant, scout, etc.) and gradually move up if they become successful in their roles. Sometimes it takes more than thirty years before they finally get a chance to be the head coach.
The same can occur in business. George Bodenheimer is the former president of ESPN. He started out working in the mailroom of ESPN. It would have been very difficult for him to rise to the presidency if he hadn’t had a boss who wanted to help him grow and succeed in the company.
Listens firsts and acts second
Someone who jumps to conclusions without first seeking to understand has made a fatal error—for themselves and their team. In order to lead people effectively, you have to take the time to listen and see things from their perspective. You have to put yourself in their shoes and fully understand the situation.
Always demonstrate your courage in making tough decisions, knowing that bad decisions will be penalized. Remember that doing nothing is always an option.
Effective leadership behaviors.
Boost employee confidence
Employee attitude is so critical that it can’t be overemphasized. It trickles down from employers. Your business isn’t optimized if you don’t optimize for employee happiness.
Leaders should make employees feel good about themselves. Constantly criticizing and pointing out the flaws in an employee is a sure fire way to decrease morale and performance.
Admits what they don’t know
It’s dangerous when someone claims to “know everything.” A good leader is ok with not having all the answers, and knowing that they will find the people who do. They don’t see it as a weakness—because it’s not. It’s merely part of the process.
Be an optimist
People want to follow an optimist, a person always looking to prioritize and solve problems.
A real leader doesn’t make decisions in the heat of the moment
Do you know those bosses that get all riled up and then start rapid-firing people? That’s not a leader. That’s a trigger-happy manager on a power trip—and there’s a difference. A leader waits until the heat of the moment has passed so that he or she can give solid thought to the situation before coming to a conclusion.
Be willing to be misunderstood
This isn’t an excuse for being a jerk to employees. To colleagues in your industry, sometimes an invention is at first misunderstood before it becomes a revolution. So if you aren’t willing to be misunderstood, you may never be a pioneer in your industry.
A good example of a willingness to be misunderstood as a business leader is Netflix. It was a totally unique way to receive movies. In the late 90′s, if you wanted to rent a movie, you’d have to go through your cable or satellite provider or get one at Blockbuster or something similar. Getting rental DVDs via mail was unconventional. Undoubtedly, Netflix needed to be willing to be misunderstood. They were pioneering and attempting to change the way people watch movies.
A real leader knows what they don’t know
It’s dangerous when someone claims to “know everything.” A good leader is ok with not having all the answers, and knowing that they will find the people who do. They don’t see it as a weakness—because it’s not. It’s merely part of the process.
Types of leadership behaviors.
Get people to follow you
You earn leadership by what Anne Mulcahy calls “followership.”
“I think sometimes we forget that we’re not actually anointed leaders, we actually have to earn it and we have to have people that trust us and are willing to follow. I think that really is the differentiator between great leadership and average leadership.”
-Anne Mulcahy, Former Chairman, and CEO of Xerox Corporation
Even if a leader is anointed, it doesn’t mean that they’ll have followers. The leader needs to gain the trust of the followers. It has to be earned because not many people will mindlessly follow a leader.
A real leader never wants to be the smartest person in the room
If someone hires people or surrounds themselves with people less qualified than themselves simply to remain in a position of power, then they feel threatened. You never want to be the smartest person in the room—and if you are, you’re in the wrong room. Great leaders know this and seek to surround themselves with masters of their crafts. The leader’s job, then, is to “play the orchestra.”
Contribute most to leadership results … inspire people
Inspire and motivate to get the most from each team member and succeed based on your ability to work with others.
A quality of great leaders is being able to clearly articulate ideas and get people excited and inspired about them. It’s not selling people on an idea, it’s inspiring them.
Always wear your passion and enthusiasm for what you are doing. To do that, you must find those things that you love.
Follow the passion; it is what gives you the strength to overcome the obstacles to everyday tasks. Passion is power … it is what keeps you going when everyone else gets tired and gives up.
Be a continuous learner
Observing and learning from those around you makes you stronger, better. Never fail to see its value. Your peers, as well as competitors, can usually teach you more than your friends. Let them. Learn from them. To be a great leader, you need to have a strong will and an even stronger stomach. At the end of the day, you need to remind yourself that your job isn’t to make everyone happy, but rather to improve the organization as a whole.
Good leaders constantly trying to improve, surround themselves with the ablest people they can find. They look squarely at their own mistakes and deficiencies, and they ask frankly what skills they and the company will need in the future. And because of this, they can move forward with confidence that’s grounded in the facts, not built on fantasies about their talent.
Always work hard at being a little better than you were the day before. Continuous learning is one of the most important attributes in the work and personal environment.
Persistence is key. Always keep up the effort as you will never know how close to success you may be.
Think about your energy. It’s not just about what you like best, but about what feeds you and what depletes you. And who. Do what you can to increase the good stuff and decrease the bad. You just need to realize you have the power to accomplish it. Much more than you may have imagined.
Be a good listener
You don’t gain insights by talking. Ideas can come from anywhere, so it’s important to keep your ears open to new ideas and insight. Focus on hearing everything that’s being said so you can make the most informed decisions.
Listening helps a leader get multiple perspectives. When making a decision, a good leader always listens to a number of different people. They know they own the final decision but always make sure they get input from multiple people.
A simple reminder … business leadership skills, like swimming, cannot be learned by reading about it … it takes lots of consistent practice. You need to dive into the pool as soon as possible.
Great leaders know that every step they take, every decision they make, matters in the end. They know they must strategize carefully, and then act decisively. They know they must think ahead — not just to their next step — but to the many steps after it.
Practice these leadership behaviors often and think ahead for your greatest leadership advantages.
Need some help in capturing more improvements for your staff’s leadership, teamwork, and collaboration? Creative ideas in running or facilitating a team or leadership workshop?
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All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.
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Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
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More leadership material from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.
