GOOD BOSS BAD BOSS: 5 beliefs to be embraced by best bosses as stepping stones to effective action

GOOD BOSS BAD BOSS

How to be the Best… and Learn from the Worst

ROBERT I SUTTON, PhD

CHAPTER 1: THE RIGHT MINDSET

5 beliefs to be embraced by best bosses as stepping stones to effective action

Belief Number 1:   Don’t Crush The Bird

Lasorda’s law states that managing is like holding a dove in your hand.  If you hold it too tightly, you kill it, but if you hold it too loosely, you lose it.  Managers who are too assertive will damage relationship with superiors, peers, and followers; but managers who are not assertive enough won’t press followers to achieve sufficiently tough goals.

Effective bosses know it is sometimes best to leave their people alone.  Followers who are closely monitored become less creative.  William Coyne, 3M’s R&D director believed a big part of his job was to leave his people alone; as he puts it: after you plant a seed in the ground, you don’t dig it up every week to see how it is doing.

Bosses need to coach people, discipline, communicate directions, and interject in hundreds of other little ways.

Belief Number 2:   Grit Gets You There

The word grit is to describe the mindset define as ‘perseverance’ and passion towards long-term goals.  It entails working strenuously towards challenges, mentoring effort and interest despite adversity and plateaus in progress.

Gritty bosses create urgency without treating life as one long emergency.  They 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.

Belief Number 3:   Small Wins Are The Path

Great big goals set direction and energize people, but if goals are all you’ve got, you are doomed.  The path to success is paved with small wins.  According to Karl Weick, author of classic article ‘Small Wins’, people think and act more effectively when they face and can conquer more modest and controllable challenges.  The best bosses realize that when they focus on the little things, the big things take care of themselves.

The best bosses breakdown problems into bite-size pieces and talk and act like each task is something that people can complete without great difficulty.  Doing so instills calmness and confidence, and spurs constructive action.

Belief Number 4:   Beware The Toxic Tandem

Being a boss I much like being a high-status primate in any group the creatures beneath you in the pecking order watch every move you make – and so they know about them.  People pay attention to those who control their outcomes.

The toxic tandem (part of power poisoning): people in power tend to become self-centered and oblivious to what their followers need, do and say.  When people wield power, they:

·         Become more focus on their own needs, and wants;

·         Become less focused on others’ needs, wants, and actions; and

·         Act as if written and unwritten rules others are expected to follow don’t apply to them.

Belief Number 5:   Got Their Backs

Effective bosses protect their people.  Great bosses battle on their people’s behalf even when they suffer personally as a result.

to be continued....