The 5 Qualities
of Remarkable Bosses
By Jeff Haden
Remarkable
bosses aren’t great on paper. Great bosses are remarkable based on their
actions.Results are everything—but not the results you might think.
Consistently do these five things and everything else follows. You and your
business benefit greatly.
More
importantly, so do your employees.
1. Develop every
employee. Sure, you can put your primary focus on reaching targets, achieving
results, and accomplishing concrete goals—but do that and you put your
leadership cart before your achievement horse.
Without great
employees, no amount of focus on goals and targets will ever pay off. Employees
can only achieve what they are capable of achieving, so it’s your job to help
all your employees be more capable so they—and your business—can achieve more.
It's your job to
provide the training, mentoring, and opportunities your employees need and
deserve. When you do, you transform the relatively boring process of reviewing
results and tracking performance into something a lot more meaningful for your
employees: Progress, improvement, and personal achievement.
So don’t worry
about reaching performance goals. Spend the bulk of your time developing the
skills of your employees and achieving goals will be a natural outcome.
Plus it’s a lot
more fun.
2. Deal with
problems immediately. Nothing kills team morale more quickly than problems that
don't get addressed. Interpersonal squabbles, performance issues, feuds between
departments... all negatively impact employee motivation and enthusiasm.
And they're
distracting, because small problems never go away. Small problems always fester
and grow into bigger problems. Plus, when you ignore a problem your employees
immediately lose respect for you, and without respect, you can't lead.
Never hope a
problem will magically go away, or that someone else will deal with it. Deal
with every issue head-on, no matter how small.
3. Rescue your
worst employee. Almost every business has at least one employee who has fallen
out of grace: Publicly failed to complete a task, lost his cool in a meeting,
or just can’t seem to keep up. Over time that employee comes to be seen by his
peers—and by you—as a weak link.
While that
employee may desperately want to “rehabilitate” himself, it's almost
impossible. The weight of team disapproval is too heavy for one person to move.
But it’s not too
heavy for you.
Before you
remove your weak link from the chain, put your full effort into trying to
rescue that person instead. Say, "John, I know you've been struggling but
I also know you're trying. Let's find ways together that can get you where you
need to be." Express confidence. Be reassuring. Most of all, tell him
you'll be there every step of the way.
Don't relax your
standards. Just step up the mentoring and coaching you provide.
If that seems
like too much work for too little potential outcome, think of it this way. Your
remarkable employees don’t need a lot of your time; they’re remarkable because
they already have these qualities. If you’re lucky, you can get a few
percentage points of extra performance from them. But a struggling employee has
tons of upside; rescue him and you make a tremendous difference.
Granted,
sometimes it won't work out. When it doesn't, don't worry about it. The effort is its own reward.
And occasionally
an employee will succeed—and you will have made a tremendous difference in a
person's professional and personal life.
Can’t beat that.
4. Serve others,
not yourself. You can get away with being selfish or self-serving once or
twice... but that's it.
Never say or do
anything that in any way puts you in the spotlight, however briefly. Never
congratulate employees and digress for a few moments to discuss what you did.
If it should go
without saying, don't say it. Your glory should always be reflected, never
direct.
When employees
excel, you and your business excel. When your team succeeds, you and your
business succeed. When you rescue a struggling employee and they become
remarkable, remember they should be congratulated, not you.
You were just
doing your job the way a remarkable boss should.
When you
consistently act as if you are less important than your employees—and when you
never ask employees to do something you don’t do—everyone knows how important
you really are.
5. Always
remember where you came from. See an autograph seeker blown off by a famous
athlete and you might think, “If I was in a similar position I would never do
that.”
Oops. Actually,
you do. To some of your employees, especially new employees, you are at least
slightly famous. You’re in charge. You’re the boss.
That's why an
employee who wants to talk about something that seems inconsequential may just
want to spend a few moments with you.
When that
happens, you have a choice. You can blow the employee off... or you cansee the
moment for its true importance: A chance to inspire, reassure, motivate, and
even give someone hope for greater things in their life. The higher you rise
the greater the impact you can make—and the greater your responsibility to make
that impact.
In the eyes of
his or her employees, a remarkable boss is a star.
Remember where
you came from, and be gracious with your stardom.
