Leadership - The boss
The boss
General
It is a fact of life that your boss is more valuable to you than you are to him.
You must understand your boss in order to have the best chance of influencing him or her.
As an emerging leader it is a good idea to understand what your boss may be looking for.
This is discussed elsewhere [see Emerging leaders].
How you handle your boss can affect your efficiency, particularly in terms of time management.
This aspect is discussed in more detail in ‘The Complete Time management package’.
Two way affair
A boss looks for many attributes in his or her staff but usually a common requirement is loyalty.
You must be one of the team. Negative comments that undermine the team are not welcomed.
Your boss wants certain things from you and you need certain things from your boss. You need your boss to encourage your leadership skills with his or her own particular style of leadership. If your boss is poor you will learn bad techniques.
What do you do?
- You could move to another job and hope your new boss is better.
- You could read a lot more and train yourself in leadership skills – take responsibility for your career.
- You could try to get a higher placed (above your boss) leader to coach you and make yourself available to him or her for particular jobs.
The big disadvantage in moving to another organisation is the need to rebuild the trust and infrastructure required in moulding your leadership skills.
When you tackle your boss only do so on the big issues forget the detail and minor obstacles otherwise you will begin to waste your boss’s time and that won’t score you any points.
Many bosses will judge your competence by putting more and more work onto your shoulders until you shout for help.
To avoid this you must consider additional training in time management techniques, especially learning the art of saying ‘no’.
See also comments elsewhere [see Style Spider].