Have you ever looked at yourself in the mirror, wondering “Am I a Good Boss? Do I have what it takes to lead a team of more than capable human beings to success?”
12,246 self-help books and entrepreneurial guides would dispel all your doubts that make you think otherwise by screaming “YOU ARE THE BEST BOSS YOUR EMPLOYEES COULD EVER HAVE!” but is it really true?
Sure, if you are a good boss then your employees would sing laurels for you and even if you are not, you won’t get a whiff of what goes through the grapevine. The modern day office culture is satirically presented by NBC’s The Office, where a Paper Company’s manager, Michael Scott (Steve Carell) clinically highlights what it’s like to be the boss.
Nobody tells you when you are doing a good job and nobody cares to highlight your bumps and blotches in dire times. The room goes quiet when you walk in (and it’s not out of respect) and you stop becoming part of inside jokes. The party invites don’t reach you and you can do nothing but wonder where it went wrong.
As the captain of this ship, you can’t help but ask this simple question: How to be a Good Boss? Do I shower the employees with more money? Do I start cracking inappropriate jokes with them (and get a harassment suit)? Nothing that weird and crazy—let’s stick to the basics. Here are some little tips that’ll teach you how to be a good boss in times when this designation has really high expectations.
There’s no hiding the fact that the Boss is supposed to be a people person. But it’s not just being a great conversationalist that matters. To be a good boss, you have to keep your squad of employees on their A-game. Wrongly, motivation is seen as a sympathizer and this wrongful perception calls for motivation when employees hit rock bottom.
But even from an employee’s perspective, to be a good boss you’ve got to keep the troops motivated. This involves setting up astronomical but achievable standards for employees. In case of a modern worker, sky is the limit but it’s hindered by a glass ceiling that can only be lifted when the boss motivates the squad.
But be wary—the Boss can’t play a blame game in case these high standards aren’t met. The best way to take care of this situation is to comprehend whether the set objectives were too much on employees’ plates or was there an invisible flaw. Either way, these challenges have to be taken on together.
Amusingly, the advice on how to be a good boss and marriage counseling has some points in common like this one. Honest feedback might sound like an arrow to the targeted listeners’ heart but if fabricated carefully, it can bring out surprisingly positive results.
Clarity in feedback is like a double edged sword and it can misfire very easily. The best way to keep the communication clear and positively-lined is by delivering it as simply as it can be. Highlight your employees’ highs in front of the whole squad (or at least his/her peers) and work on their lows discreetly.
Many studies state that a hardworking employee takes constructive criticism in the best way. And even for those who take it with a pinch of salt, they later realize the utility of it. Remember—don’t sugarcoat it, keep it straight, and keep it discreet (unless it’s something good; you can bake ‘em a cake in that case).
Do you really want to learn how to be a good boss? You have to help them bloom into better professionals. As the Talisman of the crew, you can’t earn employees’ respect only by telling motivational stories and giving out low key Ted Talks.
You actually earn their respect by giving them a platform to develop themselves. Before hiring new jobbers, look into it whether someone from your current workforce can do the work for you with some training and development.
Identify your employees’ strengths, see what else they can do and unlock their maximum potential. A budding employee can pay your enterprise back in ways unimaginable.
It isn’t always possible to craft new roles inside the organization for your employees. But why do you have to do that? As a boss you must be having bigger fish to fry—the best you can do is delegate some of work that isn’t on top of your list.
Yes, this might look like it’s going against the virtues of employee engagement but when employees sense that their new task is actually something that came down from the Boss’s Desk; they’ll be more than happy to jump for the stack of papers.
This plays a key factor in motivation as the employees feel important. Don’t just give them a toy to rattle though. For instance, telling the UI/UX Designer to do the work of data entry in the final report won’t send the right message.
An employee-employer relationship is vividly overshadowed by a stack of dark clouds. This happens because both of them have a different goal in sight, something that’s called organizational goals v/s personal goals debate.
It’s the management’s objective to fuse the organization’s goal with the employee’s personal aspirations, but the Boss actually puts them in the bigger picture. You can emanate this vibe throughout the office by creating an aura of employee-employer affinity.
When they’ll know that they are a part of something big, they will be more than happy to work in the same direction to achieve the same goals. You’d only get that level of motivation when you put them in one big picture.
If you want to know how to be a good boss, remember who you’re leading. Your employees are your family (like it or not!) and you have to make them feel the same way. They’ll work in full spirits only when they feel that the person they’re working with knows what it takes to be a good boss & acts on it.
