Every boss leaves a mark, whether it’s a lasting memory filled with invaluable career lessons or one stained with utter disappointment.
The assumption is that everyone wants to create the former of the two types of bosses. We want to give you some great tips that you could use to take home the “Amazing boss” award.
Let your staff own their work
When you distribute an assignment, any boss is always tempted to breakdown the INS and OUTS of an assignment. While this may be necessary for certain projects, you might need to forget about this rule every now and then.
For a change, try giving your staff the opportunity to decide how to execute the task without your 1-2-3 step direction. A vague statement like “handle this and see what you come up with…” might go a long way in creating an environment for creativity. Let them figure it out on their own; make go getters out of your team.
Communicate the goal of the assignment
Every assignment whether big or small has an impact on the overall goal of the organization. Being transparent by sharing the value of an assignment and its impact on the team could go a long way. For example, in a situation where a customer service agent is addressing customer complaints, the goal of this assignment is not only to close out complaints by trying to prove a point to the customer or showing them how un-knowledgeable they are about the product.
The assignment is more about being able to identify with the customer’s concerns.The goal is create a relationship with the customer: being relatable. This is how customer loyalty is created.
Pay Attention and appreciate individual skills
Every boss usually wants mold a team to a specific direction by emphasizing on a particular way things should be done. This enables an easy switch of team players between projects and creates consistency. On all levels, it is a great idea but an amazing boss would be aware that every team player is unique with individual skills, abilities and creativity. Therefore, it is important that you are able to honor and appreciate the individual differences and contributions so that employees feel valued by who they are and not just what you expect the general team to be.
Keep things moving & Delegate
Most startup companies are challenged with availability of resources; most commonly, financial and human resources. But what all organizations find most challenging is time, time to get all activities performed. Thus, most bosses are caught in the web of doing everything by themselves to get perfection within the limitations of time. This in the end keeps things moving slowly and honestly, you may not be able to get the absolute perfection you seek.
A best rule of thumb is to try to delegate. Find out what you can do immediately without postponing and delegate the rest of the activities in the long script of the project activities so that things keep moving.
And there you have it; the “Amazing boss” award is all yours!
