GOOD BOSS BAD BOSS: STRIVE TO BE WISE

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 3: STRIVE TO BE WISE

(Confident enough to act, humble enough to doubt your action)

 Wise bosses are devoted to knowing what they don’t know.  Wisdom helps bosses avoid falling prey to flawed assumptions.  Wise bosses encourage followers to reveal bad news, dig for evidence that clashes with their presumptions.  Walk around, look, ask question.  Asking a question is the best source of information, yet it is the least used.

Wise bosses like a good fight.  Studies show that when people fight over ideas, and do so with mutual respect, they are more productive and creative.

As individuals, we all have different strengths and weakness, but if we can interconnect all our strengths, we are collectively the greatest…  Speak up.  Everyone will get humiliated and encouraged together.  Because nobody knows all the answer.

(edited version) Brad Bird, Pixar’s Academy Award-winning director (The Incredibles).

People need each other and the virtues of exposing one’s weakness.  Good bosses know the wrong times to fight.  Tearing apart a newborn idea can kill it before it develops enough to be judged.  Wise bosses ask good questions, listen, and ask for help.  Too many well-meaning bosses fall into participation traps, involving people in too many decisions.

Participation Trap

1.       Creating unnecessary inference and distraction

·      Bosses who ask for too much input and assistance make it tough for people to concentrate.

2.       Just because people can perform a job well doesn’t mean they ought to   help manage it

3.       Sham participation

·      Happens when the boss asks people to devote massive effort to help  with some decision but knows from the outset that underlings will have no influence

·      Use in hopes of tricking powerless people into believing their input actually matters

·      A surefire way to undermine people’s productivity and wipe-out their trust

Achilles Heel

When people seem to be perfect, it just means you don’t know them very well.  A hallmark of wise bosses is that they are aware of their ignorance, weak skills, and character flaws, and they do something about it.  Wise people learn new skills and habits to overcome their weaknesses.  Wise bosses also enlist followers as teachers.  They asked staff members to teach them the staff’s job as they need to know more to do their job right.

Wisdom: A Path To Empathy and Compassion

Wise bosses get better performance from their people when the boss listens carefully, reaches out to help, and learns from the people.  Wise bosses don’t just display empathy, compassion, and appreciation through dramatic and memorable gestures but also convey it through tiny and seemingly trivial gestures.

The lack of gratitude is demoralizing.  Attitude of wisdom is bolstered by the attitude of gratitude.  Too many projects end without acknowledgement and celebration.  Expressing gratitude is especially important when the stench of failure is in the air.

The act of wisdom is an ongoing quest to strike the right balance between confidence and doubt, and between action and reflection.

to be continued....