Secrets to being a good Boss

Vision and company roadmaps are overrated. What employees really want is simple - a good boss.

“People don’t quit their jobs, they quit their bosses”, the saying holds true in most cases. Becoming a good boss is way more challenging than one can imagine. And the power of good leadership can bring on endless possibilities at a workplace.

The following characteristic traits can help hone your leadership skills and make you a ‘good boss’:

Exhibit leadership and mentor 

Good leaders lead by action. Action helps build trust and respect and makes employees want to emulate their respective leaders. Extraordinary bosses invest in an employee’s personal growth. Identify your team’s strength and invest time and money in training and mentoring your employees on an ongoing basis.

Empower your employees

Empower your employees to make decisions. Give your employees the platform to expand their thinking and help them enhance their problem-solving abilities. Encourage safe failure, they may stumble but they will end up learning a lot more.

Get to know your team

Reframe relationships. Taking a genuine interest and knowing about people’s dreams, goals and supporting them not only engages them with you but also enhances work productivity.

Welcome change and spontaneity

Foster open communication and develop a culture of creativity and spontaneity. Convince your employees to embrace change at regular intervals or at every opportunity possible. Encourage innovation across processes, systems and even in the everyday mundane tasks.

Delegate but don’t micro-manage

You simply cannot - nor should you - manage everything. Micromanagement is the failure of leadership and can often lead to an under-performance. Delegating work not only adds in perspective but also helps in achieving more.

Own the blame

If you’re the boss, the buck stops with you. Once you start representing your team, standing up for your team and start taking complete onus of the mistakes made by them, your team will start respecting you all the more.

Maintain a clear line of command with your employees

You’re neither their parent nor their friend. The company comes first, at all times. If you maintain friendly relations with your employees, cracking the whip gets difficult in the case of an under-performance. A clear line of command should be drawn between you and your employees to ensure easy flow of communication.