It is now a well understood fact now people are the biggest asset for any organization. The success of the organization is highly dependent on people. And when we talk of people, the role and attributes of a good boss become very important.
It is important to take care of those employees who take care of your customers. And a Good boss is the one who takes care of the employee’s day in day out.
In a Gallup research, employee focussed and care-taking organizations performed well even in tough economic times. And a good boss has a key role to play in this process.
So how does a good boss look like?
When we ask ourselves, we end up forming “god like” image of a good boss. However, there is no super leader born as yet who will possess all the qualities. But there are few qualities that matter and matter really much. In my 26 years of experience, I saw many bosses and I was boss of many. Many bosses I loved and many I hated. With my experience I realized that a good boss is one who make difference to the people and the organization. And rest everything plays a second fiddle.
It’s proven that bottom-up managers are better than the ones who have a top down style. Many new age industries have showcased the fact. The bottom-up manager possesses these three attributes which make them a good boss.
They Encourage Feedback and Work on Self-improvement
It is not easy to accept that we have flaws. It takes a great deal of courage for manager to ask for his shortcomings. Being open to feedback requires emotional intelligence and humility.
A good boss asks his subordinates and peers the tough questions “What are my areas of improvement, “How am I doing as a manager”.
A good manager will genuinely seek candid feedback in order to grow as a leader. And when a manager acts on the feedback, it will reflect care for employees. The team will see such a manager as a good boss. And they will never hesitate to share their issues, concerns and questions as they know they will be addressed.
“The speed of the boss is the speed of the team”
They Don’t Go By Their Inner Voices Alone
The top down managers are generally quite experienced and there is a lot of inner voice they are bound to hear. They find it very difficult to ignore their own voices and they tend to think they are mostly right. The bottom-up managers see every situation as a unique situation and they listen to their team. In the process they learn ideas and concerns. A good manager knows that the solution might lie in each of the ideas and concerns. And when people are heard, they feel more bonded and are likely to be better aligned towards the success of the organization.
They Aim for Winning Together
Every manager works to bring about results and go extra mile for mega wins. However, winning without taking your team together is not a win that has helped any organizatiom in the long run. A pyrrhic victory is at the expense of people. The manager will create lack of trust and fear. Not only that, manager will lose respect and see estranged employees. Therefore, it is important for a good manager to adopt participative and democratic way of working. Any challenge should be brainstormed together to work out solutions. There should not be any ego centric approach for the self-win. To be on the top attitude is poisonous. The win should benefit the whole team. Also, individual credit taking approach kills the team spirit. At the end of the day, we should know that the teams build great organizations and not individuals.
A good boss can create magical teams that are highly charged delivering high performance. Organizations with a top down approach generally fail to grow in the long term. It’s era of democratization in the work culture where each employee is valued. A good boss also contributes a great deal in making a good organization culture. Which becomes a major attraction for job seekers and making the employees staying longer with the organization.
