6 Ways to Be a Great Boss
Studies show that 82 percent of employees consider quitting because of a bad leader. Many people will opt for a new boss over a pay raise from a bad one. So, you can guess how high the expectations are if you want to lead a business or a small team. It takes a lot of time and a great deal of experience. Therefore, learning from other successful business leaders is the only way to improve your chances of becoming a great boss. On that note, here are a few ways to be a great boss.
Make Employees a Priority
What makes a great company? You can talk of a great product, loyal customers, effective processes, and many other essential business must-haves. If you bundle all these together, you’ll realize that a huge part of achieving this rest on the quality and quantity of employees you have in your workforce.
As a business owner, it’s curial not to lose fact of the importance of your employees and ensure their sacrifices are significantly appreciated. There are various ways to prioritize your employees. Most importantly, ensure your employees have what they want to work better and more efficiently. Great bosses listen to their employees and invest in solutions that work best for all of them.
Solutions can range from spreading work across so you don’t overburden and underpay workers, to securing vehicles so employees can move about freely. In situations concerning the latter, companies like The Minibus Centre can help you short out all your short to long-term car leasing arrangements.
Be a Problem Solver
A great boss leads the charge in converting the toughest problems into solutions. On the other hand, in the face of problems, average bosses tend to only shift blame. Becoming the former begins with a mindset to conceptualize problems as a conduit to identify sustainable solutions for your business. Problem-solving doesn’t mean always starting from another level.
As a great boss, you must focus on continuous improvement rather than solving a problem, waiting for the same problem to come up again, and repeating the process. Continuous improvement involves helping great bosses minimize wasteful operations and prove their yield.
Delegate
There is a misconception about delegation that many bad bosses run with, which dampens employees’ morale. As a boss, delegating doesn’t mean outsourcing tasks and cutting yourself from the process only to demand results and harshly criticize employees. The difference between a good and a bad boss is inherent in their relationship with team members.
For a bad boss, dealing with a team means staying outside, giving instructions, and criticizing efforts without empathy. Great bosses put themselves in the shoes of workers. They don’t estrange themselves from the team. Through effective and consistent communication ensures team members are always on the same page asking for regular progress updates.
Conducting frequent daily standup meetings can also be a great way to effectively communicate with your co-workers and ensure you’re all on the same page.
Give Constructive Feedback
Great bosses see operations as a continuous loop that never breaks. The process starts with identifying a problem but shouldn’t end after matching it with a solution. That’s where great bosses deploy monitoring and evaluation strategies to assess the process and provide constructive feedback to improve operations. As a great boss, you can communicate feedback using various methods. Experts advise making the communication swift, concise, and devoid of personal agenda.
Be Empathetic
Great business leaders are empathetic. Rather than shifting blames when employees go wrong, listen to your employees, understand their situations, and identify weaknesses. Empathy is vital in creating an enabling environment where employees feel empowered and appreciated.
Be Visible
Great bosses lead from the front and visible leaders appear more confident about their strategies and management efforts. These leaders inspire trust and drive teams to put up their best. For this reason, investing in your knowledge base is crucial for an effective leader. Learn as much as possible about business management, employee relationships, product management, marketing, etc.
All in all, becoming a boss is no easy task, but these tips, even though they are non-exhaustive, can help make things a little manageable.