The central idea in Good Boss, Bad Boss, the one that runs throughout the book and that links many things together, is the notion that the best bosses are in tune with what it feels like to work for them and deeply aware of the impact of their words and deeds on others. And the worst bosses are out of touch and turn inward, focus on their own needs, and are oblivious to the needs of others. As I have written in several places, including this post at Harvard Business Review and in the Financial Times early this week in an article on "Separating the Best CEOs from the Dolts", being a boss (especially a powerful and successful one) places any human at considerable risk of living in a fool's paradise. Yet, as I also write in both places, there are also plenty of bosses out there with impressive self-awareness who find ways to avoid such "power poisoning" and the related malady of "success poisoning."
I was thinking about this a bit earlier in response to a set of question that Mark Fortier, my publicist for Good Boss, Bad Boss, asked me for the Q and A part of the publicity packet that he is putting together. He asked what are some of the first quick and easy steps a boss can take to evaluate whether he or she is a good or bad boss. This question reminded me of a truly awful day long meeting I once had with senior leaders of a large company, and how the worst person in the room (and the highest status) grabbed all the talking time, constantly interrupted everyone, and as one of my academic said "Did you notice that he never asked questions? He only made statements." Between Mark's question and my memory of that experience, here is what I came-up with for the rest of this post.
If you want to be a good boss, the
big question you need to focus on is “what does it feel like to work for
me.” If you want to start getting some answers to this question, bring someone in a meeting that you trust, and have them count
three things, or even easier (although probably less accurate), evaluate
yourself on these three questions:
1. How much do you talk compared to your
followers? This is to find out if you
are talking too much and listening too little.
2. How often do you ignore, interrupt, or
talk over people who are trying to make a point? An occasional interruption is fine, but if
your frequency is high it is a sign that you aren’t really listening and aren’t
making a real effort to understand your people’s ideas and feelings. And if you constantly run over people, it is
a sign that you are not treating them with sufficient dignity and respect.
3. When you speak, how often do you make
statements versus ask questions?
Insensitive and inner focused and unwise bosses have “strong opinions
strongly held” and see themselves(whether they realize it or not) as the
smartest person in the room. When you
only make statements (and do most of the talking) it is hard to learn a thing
and you are not inviting your followers to teach you things and challenge your
assumptions. Good bosses ask a lot of
questions, attend very carefully to both the words and the emotions they
provoke, and change their opinions and actions as a result.
another way, the best bosses have and express strong opinions, but they also
listen carefully to others, always consider that they might be wrong, and
quickly update their opinions and actions when they realize they are
wrong. This approach to being a boss,
which I describe as the attitude of wisdom in Good Boss, Bad Boss, is yet another advantage gained by bosses who
learn to stay in tune with followers and other key people including peers,
superiors, and customers or clients.
P.S. Good Boss, Bad Boss is starting to roll into the stories already and will be shipping at Amazon and Barnes & Noble on September 7th or a couple days before.