Good Bosses Have Good Perks

THERE ARE FIVE THINGS THAT CAN HELP YOU BECOME A GOOD BOSS – PARTICIPATION, ENVIRONMENT, RECOGNITION, KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS – Dr. Tager.

Being a good boss requires more than just not being a bad boss. There are four main attributes commonly associated with bad bosses. They are unpredictable, diminish other’s self esteem, create win-lose situations and are insensitive to the varying needs and moods of people. Avoiding these characteristics / attributes would keep you from being a bad boss, but would not necessarily make you a good boss. To become a good boss, one needs to deliberately make an attempt to imbibe the qualities and work on it constantly, regularly, methodically, sincerely, and religiously so that it becomes your second nature. These attributes has to show up spontaneously at your place of work for you to get a title as a GOOD BOSS.

When you are seriously contemplating to become a good boss, just think of PERKS – participation, environment, recognition, knowledge and skills. Practice this in your work place at every given opportunity and earn the title of a Good Boss and with that comes Good Perks.

Participation creates a sense of belonging, of being valued. Being valued leads to greater commitment and more care and concern about the job. To foster greater participation, you have to listen more. Listening more actually means listening to people aggressively through ears and mind. Further, as a boss you involve employee in decision making and help them set goals for their work.

A positive, supporting environment encourages people to learn, to grow, to try something new and innovative. Such an environment requires mutual trust, openness and respect. To increase trust and respect, I mean being tactful and not blaming others. Promoting from within and showing appreciation, involvement and direction for each person’s unique contribution is one of the unique attribute of a good boss. There is nothing like a good environment or a bad environment, it the environment we create and having created you have to accept, adjust and live with that kind of environment. So learn to create a pleasant environment for people at work so that they continue to give in their best consistently.

Positive feedback is the key to recognition that will increase self-worth. Let people know how they are dong. Give more positive messages than negative ones. Learn and try to give at least 4 to 5 times as many positive messages as negative ones. In other words, increase giving positive messages to employees at every given opportunity by simultaneously reducing negative ones.

Knowledge is power. Applied knowledge is super power. Knowledge improves performance. At a minimum people / employees need to know four things which are as under:

What you expect them to do. How well you expect them to do it. What resources they have to do it with. How you will evaluate their performance.

Today every one of us without an exception needs to have skill sets i.e. superlative skills to earn good perks. In order to survive and thrive in this competitive market, you need to upgrade your skills sets from time to time lest it withers. In order to be skilled, you need to apply those skills regularly which you have learned. People skills are a specialized skill and it is learnable. In order to get the job done, the bosses’ needs to possess the art of handling people in addition to the other skills as people are creatures of emotions. You need to press the right button each time to get the right results from employees on rolls. One word uttered by you shall motivate one employee or one category of employees but other word uttered under different circumstances shall completely de-motivate those employees to such an extent that they stop performing their duties. Thus, bosses need to possess people / human skills in abundance apart from having their technical skills, conceptual skills, administrative skills, decision making skills, innovative skills, delegating skills in order to earn the title of good boss which would ultimately get translated by way of good perks.

Finally, to promote good relationships, learn to be sensitive to the differences in people. Adjust yourself and the work environment to match their needs.

REMEMBER PERKS. THEY CAN HELP YOU BECOME A GOOD BOSS FOR YOUR PEOPLE.

The said write up has been written by Iyer Subramanian from Bombay Chamber of Commerce and Industry. E Mail: iyerpdkgnm@yahoo.com Cell No: 9892523163