Today’s bosses are getting a bad rap. They are the number one reason employees cite for leaving their employers. The truth is, many people leave due to poor job fit, work ethic and work discipline, along with illusions about how fast they should be advancing in their jobs or careers.
As a boss, you may believe you have the wrong employees. However, it’s critical to your career, now and in the future, to learn about yourself and how you can improve your management skills: performance, people and profit. Usually when you do this, you will be surprised to find you have great employees. If you continue to believe you don’t have great employees, you will eventually discover you are in the wrong job!
Important Note: Being a good person does not mean you are a good boss!
Transform Poor Skills Into Good Ones
-Performance Effectiveness. As a boss, you may falsely believe that if your employees like you, they will perform at higher levels. It’s a myth! The truth is, as a respected boss (not necessarily a well-liked boss), you become fearless about making the right decisions, finding needed resources and encouraging employee initiatives. While you may not be everyone’s favorite boss, your employees can count on you to develop them into great contributors who produce unprecedented results. They will value you as a leader.
-Great Relationships. Belief in yourself, your teams and your management peers is critical, but believing blindly can create problems. Use objective data to guide you in developing and coaching your people with laser-like skills to ensure job fit. Remember to listen more than talk. When you value others, their ideas and efforts, people will respect and like you as a leader.
-Attention to the Bottom Line. Your boss and top management team will provide important industry insights and rely on your technical and people skills to design, plan and execute new business practices. It’s important for you to be able to work with and through your team profitably to achieve the intended results. It will determine your fate as a good boss now and in the future.
Boss Development Is Required Now
Note: You may see yourself or one of your employees as having “bad boss” traits. It’s critical to act now to fix them. The longer bad habits continue, the harder it is to transform them into effective ones.
-First, hire an executive coach to work through the challenges and perceptions for an extended period of time. There are no quick fixes! Take a qualified assessment to help you see the connection between your work habits and attitudes and how they conflict with good boss practices. Participate in a qualified 360-degree feedback to better understand the workability of your management style based on objective feedback from your boss, peers and direct reports.
-Second, review the information provided by both assessments with your executive coach and create a strategic plan to develop skills you are not using, acquire skills you do not have and become effective when handling the challenges, conflicts and changes required of any boss. Remember, you can build on strengths. You cannot build on weaknesses.
-Third, implement the strategic plan you just created with your coach and stay focused. Being a good boss is not an easy career path. However, it can be really fun and highly rewarding.While no one expects you to be perfect, it’s important you transform your “bad boss” reputation before it derails you and your career options.
©Jeannette Seibly, 2017-2018
Need a speaker or facilitator to successfully address company issues? As a future leader, are you ready to develop the key skills now? Contact Jeannette Seibly. She will provide confidential, laser-focused coaching that works!
Jeannette Seibly has been called a catalyst. She is celebrating 25 years as a business coach, advisor and consultant who guides her clients to achieve unprecedented results. Remember, everyone can be a leader, with or without the title. First, you must step up! Check out her website, or contact Jeannette for a preliminary confidential conversation.