GOOD BOSS BAD BOSS: LINK TALK AND ACTION

GOOD BOSS BAD BOSS

How to be the Best… and Learn from the Worst

ROBERT I SUTTON, PhD

SECTION II

WHAT THE BEST BOSSES DO

CHAPTER 5: LINK TALK AND ACTION

Even the best bosses sometimes fail to implement good ideas – the know-doing gap is an inescapable fact of organizational life.  Tips on how good bosses close the gap:

1.       Don’t be a clueless blabbermouth – let them rule the roost

Good bosses are keenly aware that people who know the most are sometimes the least vocal and pushy.  When a knowledgeable person isn’t saying much, a boss’s job is to ask ‘what do you think?’  Don’t fall prey to the blabbermouth theory of leadership.

(http://talentmgt.com: Blabbermouth theory of leadership where people who talk first and most often are viewed as influential

2.       Understand the work you manage – or get out of the way

A boss’s job is to ask good questions, listen, defer to those with greater expertise, and above all, to accept his or her own ignorance.  Those who fail to do so risk making bad decisions and ruining their reputation.

3.       Empathy for customers

To understand the work, a boss needs to develop both technical knowledge and empathy.  When bosses make concerted sffortsto understand what it feels like to be a customer, it makes gaps between knowledge and action vivid and helps them identify more effective repairs.  You need to understand what your customers do and how it feels to be them.

4.       Be Repetitive and concrete

Repetitive and concrete guidance is used when bosses want their words to provoke action.  Learn to do and bring together the motions of simplicity and repetition.  Checklists create especially strong connective tissue between words and concrete deeds.

5.       Keep it simple, stupid

Unfortunately people who spew out incomprehensible ‘jargon monoxide’ are rated as smarter, especially when they are rated as smarter, especially when they are renowned for their expertise.  Jargon monoxide is the best way to get ahead and mask their incompetence.  Experts’ action become so automatic that they forget the simple steps they had to learn and other struggles they faced a novices.

6.       Simple performance measures

This quest for simplicity also means using clear and actionable performance measure – and as few as possible.

7.       Simple strategies

Another misguided trick bosses use to demonstrate their brilliance is to develop incomprehensible strategies.  People can’t figure out what to do if they can’t understand the strategy.  Even if they can comprehend the twists and turns, the complexity can scatter their attention in so many directions that they won’t do any single thing well.

8.       Do it and you will know

Walt Disney: the way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing

Taking action and seeing what you can get done (and learn) as you muddle forward is among the most effective antidotes to the smart-talk trap.

9.       Do what is right, not what everyone else does

Mindless imitation is among dangerous and widespread forms of management idiocy.  One of the dumbest excuses for screwing up is ‘everyone else does it, it is industry standard.  Don’t mindlessly compare yourself to others.  What is right for them could be wrong for you.  The people you imitate might be complete dolts.

10.     Hot emotions and cool situations

Turn talk into action by first stirring hot emotions about the problem, challenges, then develop diverse rational solutions.  To incite actions among people, start by cranking up the emotions and get people excited by identifying problems and challenges.  Then find way to harness and aim all that energy to provide tangible and effective bridges between knowledge and action.

to be continued.....