Be A Better Boss

Online, March 2, 2011 (Newswire.com) - Being a boss isn't easy, because you are constantly under the spotlight. Your staff constantly observe and analyse your actions, so it's important that you are seen to do the right things.

As a manager it's important to put some effort into being a better boss. If you don't you are very likely to constantly be recruiting new staff, because, as the second article below points out, most people who leave their job do so because they don't like their boss.

The following articles discuss the key beliefs that all good bosses share, and they offer some do's and don'ts for becoming a better boss.

How To Be A Better Boss:

Bosses shape how people experience work: joy versus despair, enthusiasm versus complaints, good health versus stress.

Most bosses want to be good at what they do, yet many lack the essential mindsets that precede positive actions and behaviors.

As a boss who strives to do great work, you must adjust your thinking. The beliefs and assumptions you hold about yourself, your work and your people will determine your actions, according to Stanford University management professor Robert I. Sutton, PhD, author of Good Boss, Bad Boss: How to Be the Best...and Learn from the Worst (Business Plus, 2010).

"The best bosses embrace five beliefs that are stepping stones to effective action," he writes.

Mindset #1: Goldilocks Management:

Managers who are too assertive will damage relationships with their superiors, peers and subordinates. Conversely, those who aren't assertive enough will fail to inspire their teams to strive for stretch goals, according to a study conducted by business professors Daniel Ames, PhD, and Francis Flynn, PhD (of Columbia and Stanford Universities, respectively).

There are times when bosses need to coach people, discipline, communicate direction and intervene. The savviest bosses look for the right moments to apply pressure or encouragement to get the best out of their people. In choosing their moments, they command respect instead of contempt.

Mindset #2: True Grit:

"Gritty bosses are driven by the nagging conviction that everything they and their people do could be better if they tried just a little harder or were just a bit more creative," Sutton writes.

Such bosses instill grit in subordinates. Without creating the impression that everything is an emergency, great bosses have a sense of urgency. They are dogged and patient, sensing when to press forward and when to be flexible.

University of Pennsylvania Assistant Professor of Psychology Angela Duckworth, PhD, and her colleagues define grit as perseverance and passion toward long-term goals.

"Grit entails working strenuously toward challenges, maintaining effort and interest despite failure, adversity and plateaus in progress," they wrote in a 2007 Journal of Personality and Social Psychology paper.

Read the full article here ...

Leadership Tips:

Surveys tell us that most people leave their jobs because they don't like their boss.

Sure, some leave for more money, or for more opportunity, but very often the deciding factor is that relationship with the boss. When that relationship is bad, everything else is bad. When that relationship is good, even other less-than-satisfactory conditions are both more tolerable and more likely to be worked out.

And for those of you who want to build really strong organizations, the best performers are even more motivated by that relationship - and they are the most likely to jump when things are not right, since they will have more options open to them. So, here's a series of "do's" and "don'ts", to help you become a better boss:

To be a Better Boss, DO:

GO ON AN OCCASIONAL "LISTENING TOUR"
This worked really well for a coaching client recently, who had been appointed to a new high responsibility job in a new agency, where at some point she would have to create real pressure for change.

She started her job right away by scheduling one-on-one time with each of her direct reports, spanning more than one city, by phone if not in person. She took an open-ended approach to learning what each person liked about their work, what they did not like so much, what they hoped to do or achieve in the long term, what they saw as potential problems for the agency, etc.

She got to know them by just listening in a non-threatening way, which gave her a lot of credibility right away, even though she was replacing a popular predecessor and coming from the outside. She learned a lot that will make her more effective as she guides the organization in some new directions, and minimized the resistance she will likely encounter as she introduces new ideas and changes.

This is something any boss can do informally any time, or periodically, no matter how long he or she has been in the position. Don't make a big deal of it; just do it, or ask for time on people's schedules just to catch up or take the pulse of the organization.

Read the full article here ...

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