Being the Perfect Boss...

BEING the perfect boss is a lot like trying to be the perfect man!!! And doubly tough! All of us have had bosses with myriad personalities.Raging from the grumpy grouch obsessed with paperwork and stealing credit to the distant uninterested snob closeted and ruling from their ivory tower. An individual's performance predominantly depends on his immediate superior unless he is the completely self-motivated genius kind!

Communication-Sending the right signals!

The team members always look up to the Head for communication patterns to prioritise the various aspects of work life accordingly. It isimperative that the manager at the top sends out the right signals to his team reinforcing the mission to be achieved, be it quarterly sales figures or successful completion of a project with the deadline looming large.

Popular communication tools that can be used are the in-house magazines, the Intranet, internet messaging tools, and chat. While breakfast meetings are being popularly adopted by few corporates to communicate effectively on one on one basis with the team members, an `open door policy' has still not been effectively implemented in our world of `Sirdom'.

With these physical and psychological barriers in the communication channels, feedback, an essential tool to measure receptiveness is absent.

Constructive Criticism:

Mistakes happen often enough at the work place and how the manager deals with these human errors proves his mettle as an effective boss. While assigning blame is the easiest way out it is also the most destructive. It not only demolishes the individual's self-esteem, it also jeopardisesthe relationship between the team member and the boss and his peers too tend to question his capabilities.

The boss is not a magical problem solver nor a concealer to cover up the blotches. Instead of just rehasing the failure, an effective boss willguide the employee to find multiple remedial measures. This will also make the employee realise the responsibility he has towards the successor the failure of the particular task, project and organisation as a whole.

Appreciation

Positive reinforcement helps each employee to ascertain his position and role firmly in the BIG picture. Most people are motivated to excel andpitch in that extra bit as needed when they are appreciated or feel that they've made a difference. Many managers are knocked out by the concept that a simple 'well done' or 'thank you' can spur staff on to do much more.

Recognising potential:

Tapping the potential dormant within each employee is akin to a dog sniffing out a buried bone! It takes a special kind of person to identify the hidden talents of a person. It takes effort and sensitivity to recognise what an individual is capable of doing so as to find the right role for him within the team. Once latent talents have been determined then it becomes easy to multi task and not only exploit potential to the maximum but also enable the individual to emerge as a complete person.

Motivation:

Tonnes of books have been written on this subject and managers have gone searching for this Holy Grail. Simply put, motivation deals with how you jump start your brain to come into work day in and day out. Many a times to perform the routine tasks without losing an ounce of interest and always delivering perfection.

Not an impossible task at all. Take the example of a content syndicate headed by an Executive Editor (EE) in Hyderabad. The EE constantly challenges the intellectual prowess of each and every writer. At the end of the day all of them write articles in the field of career management but the way in which they go about it and the various techniques employed differ radically. A great amount of freedom is given to each writer as to how they approach and tackle a topic. This has proved to betheir recipe for a successful working relationship and has ultimately resulted in content deserving of the international acclaim it receives.

Follow the Leader:

Simply put, a leader can be of two broad types, the General and the Mentor. The General leads through a series of short precise commandsbarked out at team members. God have mercy on those who fail because the General is surely not going to show any! In this kind of leadership there is absolutely no participation from the team members. An excellent form of leadership at the frontline where the troops are at war but is highly ineffective in a corporate situation. Due to lack of participation by the team members there is no exchange of ideas and thepossibility of learning is nil. The mentor is right at the other end of spectrum and leads by setting an example. He refrains from spoon feeding knowledge and solutions but guides in the background to find help the junior discover and formulate his own modus operandi. This does not mean that the mentor is all empathetic, while they understand one's dilemma they don't exempt you from executing the task. This kind of leadership initiates maximum participation from the employees and facilitates the learning process as the rod is spared.

Fun & Work!

All said and done, it is understood that the quality of work is directly proportionate to how enjoyable the employee finds his job. It takes areally mature individual to realise that both fun and work are the two sides of the same coin. Many a staid boss would ask does this mean loud music and cacophony at the work place? The reply is absolutely not, a quick game of anthakshari during the coffee break or even word building, or knots and crosses between work schedules effectively serve to diffuse tension and keep those spirits soaring.

Apart from these there are a million and one more characteristics essential to be that quintessential Headman idolised by subordinates,envied by peers and valued by the management. By imbibing even a fraction of those mentioned will put us on the path to being effective bosses and illustrious leaders.

MALINI SURYANARAYANAN

maalini.mds@cxknetworks.com