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#Leadership : What Bad Bosses Can Teach You About Good Leadership…List of 10 Things a Bad Boss can Teach you about Good Leadership, for the Day When you Might Have his (or her) Job

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A lot has been written about what makes a bad boss, or about bosses to avoid or signs you are working for a bad boss. And then what – leave? To go where? Today’s business world is so precarious may of us don’t know if we’ll be in the same company from one week to the next, let alone report to the same person.

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In the belief that the only thing you can really change in the world is your point of view, I offer this list of 10 things a bad boss can teach you about good leadership, for the day when you might have his (or her) job…

1. Mutual respect. I had a boss once who – in staff meetings – would actually sneer at those with whom she disagreed, who wouldn’t hesitate to openly criticize someone’s efforts. This is one step shy of public ridicule. The result was a marked decline in initiative and innovation and a general malaise of spirit within the department that was noticeable and remarked upon by senior management. Ultimately her behavior outweighed performance in removing her from her position.

“To handle yourself, use your head; to handle others, use your heart.” —Eleanor Roosevelt

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2. Communication is a two-way street. One boss had three styles when it came to communicating with staff verbally, and “listening” wasn’t one of them: bullying, pontificating, and droning on. The message that came through was that she really didn’t much care what anyone else thought or had to say. The result? People toed the line and had a field day mimicking her behind her back.

“The day the soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help them or concluded that you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership.” —Colin Powell

3. Know who’s the boss. If that’s your title, then it’s you. You don’t have to hold off making a decision until the last minute to watch your staff scramble to meet the deadline just so they’ll know who has the authority around here. That’s sabotage.

“A leader … is like a shepherd. He stays behind the flock, letting the most nimble go out ahead, whereupon the others follow, not realizing that all along they are being directed from behind.” —Nelson Mandela

4. Pay staff well and equitably. I once had a boss who suggested I hire a women for an open position because it would be cheaper than hiring a man. I didn’t. Make it cheaper, that is. A salary is a sign of worth, and if someone learns he or she is being paid less than someone else doing the same kind of job, you can leave yourself open to legal action. That’s in addition to being a jerk.

“Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.” —Peter F. Drucker

5. Hire good people, share your vision, and then let them get on with it in their own way. Don’t let your staff’s competence make you uncomfortable or nervous. You’re there to lead an entire team, to clear the path for them so you can reach your targets — not meddle in their daily work.

“Don’t tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results.” General George Patton

6. Give the credit; take the blame. Too often, it’s the other way around, with the boss taking on for him- or herself the team’s achievements while offloading failure. That’s exploitation. This tactic fools no one, no matter which end of the corporate ladder you’re trying to impress.

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” —Martin Luther King, Jr.

7. Don’t play favorites. I had one boss whose principle business relationship centered around his second in command. The two played tennis together, their families went to dinner together. That left the other 96 people working at that company out in the cold. So none of them could (or would?) come to the rescue when eventually the Board of Directors, tired of lackluster performance from the CEO, ousted him one day… and his sidekick followed. Aside from putting yourself at risk of corporate lynching, playing favorites sidelines the valuable talents of everyone else.

“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.” —Antoine de Saint-Exupry

8. Keep your distance. I don’t mean “aloof’ — as in the sense of being cold or void of compassion. But there needs to be a bit of a “no fly zone” between you and your staff. The people over whom you have some control, and on whose efforts your company relies, shouldn’t have to bear the burden of your personal problems.

“Leaders must be close enough to relate to others, but far enough ahead to motivate them.” —John C. Maxwell (contemporary American author, pastor and speaker)

9. Lead by example. This almost goes without saying. Actions always speak louder than words. Say less, if you have to.

“Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing.” —Albert Schweitzer

10. Trust your people. If you don’t, you may find yourself on the receiving end of words and deeds that are not as promised, whereas sometimes bestowing trust on someone is enough to make him or her live up to expectations. The trust you give out comes back to you.

“There is a difference between being a leader and being a boss. Both are based on authority. A boss demands blind obedience; a leader earns his authority through understanding and trust.” —Klaus Balkenhol (German equestrian and 1992 Olympic gold medalist)

And finally, be comfortable in your own skin:

”It’s hard to lead a cavalry charge if you think you look funny on a horse.” —Adlai E. Stevenson II

Follow me on Twitter @sckarabell1

 

Forbes.com | June 6, 2016 |  Shellie Karabell – CONTRIBUTOR : I cover leadership – people, politics & policy – from a European view

#Leadership : How former Google & Apple Exec Kim Scott is Curing the World of Horrible Bosses…The Surprising Secret to Being a Good Boss? Letting Employees Give Performance Feedback to Bosses, Not Just the Other Way Around. Kim Scott is on a Mission to Rid the World of Terrible Bosses, Particularly the “Nice” Ones.

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Scott, a former Google and Apple exec, has cofounded a new startup with beta software launching next week called Radical Candor, and she’ll soon have a book out of the same name. Radical Candor puts the power in the hands of employees, helping them convert bad bosses to good ones.

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Have you ever seen the movie Office Space? Don't be that guy.

The surprising secret to being a good boss? Letting employees give performance feedback to bosses, not just the other way around.

And the startup is likely to be a big success because Scott is known to Valley insiders as a secret weapon: a CEO coach.

She launched her coaching career about three years ago when Twitter’s then-CEO Dick Costolo, having looked for a coach among “the usual suspects” turned to her, his friend, and said, “I like talking to you about this management stuff more than these people, why don’t you become my coach?” Scott tells Business Insider.

Surprised by the offer, she took him up on it.

Soon she was coaching CEOs like Qualtrics CEO Ryan Smith (who just also asked her to be on Qualtrics board), Dropbox CEO Drew Houston, Shyp CEO Kevin Gibbon, and a number of other startup founders.

Radical Candor is her way of spreading her CEO coaching tricks to every manager.

But Scott’s career has been a wild and crazy ride that no one, least of all Scott, could have predicted would end up here.

 

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Russian investors and a deadly coup

She studied Russian literature in college, moving to Moscow after the Berlin Wall fell, where she got a job turning military factories into commercial ones, from making tanks to making tractors. (We asked her if the work was tied to the CIA, but Scott says it wasn’t.)

The job paid $6 a month, which let her buy one thing: a bag of potatoes. “So I ate potatoes for the first couple of months.”

Fortunately it soon led to a job with a venture investment firm trying to convince investors to join its new Soviet fund. The job paid a real wage but didn’t last long.

“We brought all these pension fund managers over to Russia and we’re driving to our first meeting and there’s this column of tanks coming,” Scott remembers. They had stumbled into the start of the 10-day coup, the failed attempt to oust president Boris Yeltsin.

Her guests remained safe and “they had a great time,” she laughs now.

But the Soviet Union was ultimately dissolved, ending the fund.. The VCs moved on to China.

She wound up working for one of the VC’s brothers at American diamond-cutting company Lazare Kaplan.

“So I wounded up starting up a diamond cutting factory in Moscow,” she says. This was her first management job.

But it was tough to get Russians to quit their safe government jobs to come work for an American at a commercial factory, even though it paid far more than $6 month.

Finally, a few agreed to consider the job if she had a picnic with them.

She learned the first lesson of “radical candor.” They wanted to get to know her better before they left their secure jobs.

“They wanted to know that if all hell broke lose, I could help get them and their families get out of there. They wanted somebody who could help them learn English. They wanted somebody who cared. I was like, ‘Oh! If that’s all it takes to be a boss, I can do that.’”

By the time she left Russia about two years later, “the factory was on a $200 million a year run rate.”

Being a boss “who cares” is a central part of her CEO coaching philosophy.

9/11 and Sheryl Sandberg

She left Russia to get an MBA at Harvard, where Sheryl Sandberg was a classmate. Her professor Richard Tedlow helped her land a job working for the FCC and that led to a job offer at her first startup, called DeltaThree, which did “voice over IP,” sending phone calls over the Internet.

She loved the tech industry but not the job, so she took a year off and wrote a novel instead.

The novel was a love triangle story with an underlying message about how capitalism is good at “rewarding what it can measure but bad at rewarding what people most value,” she says.

No one would publish it. (She self-published on Amazon where you can still buy it. It didn’t sell well.)

So she went to work at a friend’s startup making software for the mortgage industry and soon convinced them to back her idea for a spin-out company, Juice Software, online spreadsheet software for the financial industry.

Juice launched on September 10, 2001.

The very next day came the 9/11 terrorist attacks. New York was in ruins.

“We limped along for a couple of years and then sold, ‘sold’ being a very generous term for what happened,” she says. She was unemployed again.

“All the headhunters in New York saw my resume and scratched their head. You’ve got a failed startup and an unpublished novel, we don’t know what to do with you,” she remembers.

So she called her acquaintance, Sheryl Sandberg, for advice. Sandberg, who was at Google, showed Scott’s resume to then-CEO Eric Schmidt. He told Sandberg that it was “the perfect Google resume,” Scott tells us. “I was like, how could I be a loser in New York and perfect for Google?”

Even though she loved Manhattan, she moved to Silicon Valley to take the job at Google, right before Google went public.

“I knew I was lucky. I didn’t know how lucky,” she says. Most of the employees of that era earned a lot of money on their stock options.

Scott was hired to run AdSense, working for Sandberg. Scott brought to Google some of her favorite employees from Juice, including Jared Smith (who is today cofounder of $1 billion startup Qualtrics).

Together they “increased AdSense North America revenue 10-fold and we decreased headcount by 10%. That was really scaling. We had fun doing it. We built a great culture. They were magical Google years,” she says.

And she realized that her favorite part of the job was the part that most others disliked: the hiring, the managing, cultivating employees, and building a fun working environment.

Apple University comes calling

She wanted to do that for a living and soon she was talking to Professor Tedlow again. He had left Harvard and was working at Apple University training Apple managers.

The goal was to keep Apple’s exceptional culture even as it grew into a huge company and to “defy the gravitational pull of mediocrity” that usually happened as companies grew large.

“So I left Google, went to Apple and designed this class called Managing at Apple, which was ironic because I didn’t really know anything about managing at Apple, I had managed at Google. I did it for about two and a half years and taught it to thousands of managers,” she says.

That class became her testing ground for her “Radical Candor” theories  and one of the cornerstones of Apple’s management style.

She left Apple University to write a book about it, “And this book is getting published.” she says with a nod. “I’ve sold it to St. Martin’s Press.”

She also stumbled into the coaching gig, largely thanks to Twitter’s Costolo.

This all led her to give a 20-minute talk about Radical Candor to a group of startup CEOs at First Round Capital last winter. To her shock, it went viral.

“A huge number of companies contacted me and said, ‘make this our culture,’ and like the early days of AdSense there were too many fish wanting to jump into the boat and I didn’t even have boat.”

So in January, she launched a startup, funded by hot angel investor Micheal Dearling of Harrison Metal, with cofounder Joe Ternasky, former director of engineering at Google “who was my husband’s boss at Google,” Scott says.

The startup will take the ideas in the book and create software so any manager can learn them and easily use them.

Lose the aggression and the repression, please

Radical candor divides managing into two intersecting qualities  “care personally” about your employees (what the Russians wanted) and “Challenge directly” (honest, truthful communication styles made famous by Google and Apple).

screenshot/The Office

When you care personally, and you challenge directly, you are in the sweet zone of “radical candor.” Employees are well supported and the team runs smoothly.

When you don’t care personally, but you are honestly barking out orders, that’s “obnoxious aggression.”

When you don’t care personally and you don’t challenge directly, you are engaged in “manipulative insincerity” the worst boss style of them all “and that’s where politics comes in.”

But there’s another problem that’s far too common: being too nice, or “ruinous empathy.”

This is “responsible for 85% of management mistakes that get made,” Scott says. “That’s the boss who’s afraid of being called a jerk.”

With that boss, employees aren’t getting honest support and can fail right in front of you.

The chart winds up looking like this:

Radical CandorKim Malone Scottmanagement by Radical Candor

 

Scott and Ternasky are building software tools that will allow bosses to ask their employees for anonymous feedback on them with just a few clicks of a mouse. (“How did I do on our last 1:1 meeting? How did I do in the last team meeting?”)

If a boss earns feedback in boxes other than “radical candor,” the manager will then be offered advice from Scott and/or a network of other Radical Candor managers.

The software tools will not be sold to human resources departments — “over my dead body” Scott says — but will remain personal, confidential accounts that bosses can take with them as they move to new jobs, so they can continue to improve as their career progresses.

“People treat each other worse at work than they do in other environments,” Scott says because “feedback is a highly unnatural act.”

With Radical Candor Scott has a plan to make it natural, and painless.

 

Businessinsider.com | May 1, 2016 | 

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#Leadership : 5 Signs Your Leadership Style Is Too Soft…There’s Huge Pressure on Leaders to Keep Employees Engaged & Inspired & to Create Workplaces that are Fun & Fulfilling. But Sometimes these Initiatives Go too Far & Bottom-Line Business Results Suffer.

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There’s huge pressure on leaders to keep employees engaged and inspired and to create workplaces that are fun and fulfilling. But sometimes these initiatives go too far and bottom-line business results suffer. Leaders turn overly soft and are so focused on making people happy that they forget to help employees be productive and efficient.

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There are four fundamental leadership styles: Diplomat, Pragmatist, Idealist and Steward. Leaders can be effective or ineffective within each of these four styles, but one style in particular is at the greatest risk of being too soft—the Diplomat. (There’s a leadership styles assessment to determine your own style.)

Diplomats prize interpersonal harmony. These leaders are kind, social, and giving, and typically build deep personal bonds with their employees. They’re often known for being able to resolve conflicts peacefully (and for avoiding conflicts in the first place). Working for Diplomats has been described as being more fun and social than working for other types of leaders. Diplomats put less emphasis on challenging their employees, focusing instead on putting their people in positions that leverage their strengths so they can reliably achieve success. And traditional measures of employee satisfaction are often very high for Diplomats.

As a leader you don’t ever want to stop focusing on inspiring and engaging your employees. But you do want to ensure that all the deep emotional connections you build with your employees and the level of challenge you create translate into exceptional bottom-line results. Pay attention to the warning signs, be engaging but not too accommodating, and you should achieve great success.

Working for a boss with a Diplomat leadership style can be an amazing experience. (Read more about all the leadership styles in my Forbes article“Which Of These 4 Leadership Styles Are You?”) But if any of the Diplomat characteristics sound similar to your leadership style, you want to make sure you don’t go to extremes. Here are five signs that your leadership style has become too yielding…

1. A 5-Minute Conversation Turns Into 50 Minutes

Imagine you give an employee a highly specific bit of constructive feedback (e.g. “this report is too long, shave off 1,000 words”). It’s the kind of feedback that requires no more of a response than “I got it, I’ll fix it now.” Now imagine that even though the feedback conversation should be done within 5 minutes, you find yourself engaged in a lengthy conversation with the employee about why they fell short, how that makes them feel, and why you’re somehow to blame for their mistakes.

Has that ever happened to you? If the answer is yes, that’s a good sign that you’ve become too appeasing. It’s good to encourage dialogue with your employees and it’s great when they feel comfortable sharing. But when employees believe they can talk themselves out of being criticized or held accountable, that’s a problem.

There are times when an employee just needs to say “I’m sorry. I messed up. I’ll fix it immediately.” That’s not indicative of a dictatorial environment; it’s usually just a sign of an efficient and accountable operation. There are some conversations that should be five minutes and done. So when you regularly feel like five-minute conversations are turning into 50-minute therapy sessions, that’s a strong sign that you’ve moved from approachable to acquiescent.

 

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2. Your Meetings Get Off Topic And Take Too Longg

Have you ever been in one of those meetings where a few of the big personalities just dominate the conversation? They talk louder than everyone else, including you. All you hear are their thoughts, their ideas, their yeas and their nays. The quieter employees feel totally shut out from participating. And even when you try to rein them in, they manage to barge right through and keep dominating.

Ideally meetings are value-adding forums where all invitees participate. Isn’t that why you called all those people into the meeting in the first place? Yet, when we struggle to control the loudmouths, when they don’t respect our authority (formal or otherwise), it’s a sign that we’re not being forceful or commanding enough.

Of course people should talk. Intense conversations can signal a healthy team. But there still needs to be someone in the room with enough power to keep the conversation on track, on time and thoroughly professional.

3. You Regularly Mediate Employee Conflicts (Instead Of Employees Solving Issues Themselves)

It’s troubling when a leader is regularly sucked into employee conflicts. In an ideal world, employees would act like adults and resolve conflicts themselves, reserving the boss-as-mediator for only the most serious issues. But when a leader has become too accommodating, employees quickly figure out that they plead their case to the boss and the boss will intervene on their behalf. It’s actually quite similar to the games that our kids play; whether it’s “ma, he’s looking at me funny” or playing one parent off another.

When the leader has a no-nonsense, ‘suck-it-up’ reputation, these manipulations are rare. But when the leader is seen as overly accommodating or appeasing, these games will be a frequent occurrence.

4. You See The Same Problem Multiple Times

There isn’t an organization on the planet that doesn’t have employees who make mistakes. That’s the price of doing business. But when you see employees making the same mistakes again and again, that’s often a sign that they haven’t gotten the message that they need to improve. And that’s often the result of employees believing that their gentle leader won’t really follow through on enforcing consequences.

I’m not suggesting that leaders move to the opposite extreme, where employees are risk-averse and paralyzed by fear of being fired. That’s every bit as damaging. Rather, the effective leader will find the middle ground of mistakes may be inevitable, but we all must strive to avoid making the same mistake repeatedly. Employees need to know if they don’t take their mistakes seriously, and work diligently and earnestly to improve, the consequences will be more than just a leader’s look of disappointment.

5. Employees Aren’t Learning New Things

One of the biggest leadership tests is: are your people learning new things? Because if they’re not, they’re not growing and developing and it’s a likely sign that your leadership style is too soft.

Making sure that people learn really isn’t that difficult. Once a month ask your people “Hey, what’s something you’re better at now than you were last month?” If they don’t have an answer, follow up with questions such as, “What would you like to get better at this next month?” and “What new skills are you going to have to develop this next year to reach your big goals?”

Give your people HARD Goals that challenge them and push them outside of their comfort zone and let them know that you believe they can do it. What’s interesting to think about is when you ask leaders, “What were the most significant goals you’ve ever achieved in your life, were they easy, or were they hard? The answer is always hard. And yet, those same leaders give employees too easy goals that are achievable and realistic and then wonder where the greatness is.

The best goals are not the ones that sit totally within your comfort zone. The best goals activate the brain and get the most neural activity going in a positive way. These are the goals that are 20 to 30 percent outside of your comfort zone, where you can look back on that goal and say, “Honestly, I wasn’t even totally sure I could pull that off. It was a doozy, but I’ll tell you what, I learned a ton.”

Conclusion

As a leader you don’t ever want to stop focusing on inspiring and engaging your employees. But you do want to ensure that all the deep emotional connections you build with your employees and the level of challenge you create translate into exceptional bottom-line results. Pay attention to the warning signs, be engaging but not too accommodating, and you should achieve great success.

Mark Murphy is a NY Times bestselling author, founder of Leadership IQ, aleadership training speaker and creator of the leadership styles assessment.

 

Forbes.com | February 11, 2016 | Mark Murphy

 

Your #Career : Six Things You Don’t Owe Your Boss..Success & Fulfillment often Depend Upon your Ability to Set Good Boundaries. Once you can Do This, Everything Else Just Falls into Place. What Do you Do to Set Boundaries Around your Work?

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The typical workday is long enough as it is, and technology is making it even longer. When you do finally get home from a full day at the office, your mobile phone rings off the hook, and emails drop into your inbox from people who expect immediate responses.

Free- Big Photo Lense

While most people claim to disconnect as soon as they get home, recent research says otherwise. A study conducted by the American Psychological Association found that more than 50% of us check work email before and after work hours, throughout the weekend, and even when we’re sick. Even worse, 44% of us check work email while on vacation.

A Northern Illinois University study that came out this summer shows just how bad this level of connection really is. The study found that the expectation that people need to respond to emails during off-work hours produces a prolonged stress response, which the researchers named telepressure. Telepressure ensures that you are never able to relax and truly disengage from work. This prolonged state of stress is terrible for your health. Besides increasing your risk of heart disease, depression, and obesity, stress decreases your cognitive performance.

We need to establish boundaries between our personal and professional lives. When we don’t, our work, our health, and our personal lives suffer.

Balance between Family and WorkResponding to emails during off-work hours isn’t the only area in which you need to set boundaries. You need to make the critical distinction between what belongs to your employer and what belongs to you and you only. The items that follow are yours. If you don’t set boundaries around them and learn to say no to your boss, you’re giving away something with immeasurable value.

1. Your health. It’s difficult to know when to set boundaries around your health at work because the decline is so gradual. Allowing stress to build up, losing sleep, and sitting all day without exercising all add up. Before you know it, you’re rubbing your aching back with one hand and your zombie-like eyes with the other, and you’re looking down at your newly-acquired belly. The key here is to not let things sneak up on you, and the way you do that is by keeping a consistent routine. Think about what you need to do to keep yourself healthy (taking walks during lunch, not working weekends, taking your vacations as scheduled, etc.), make a plan, and stick to it no matter what. If you don’t, you’re allowing your work to overstep its bounds.

 

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2. Your family. It’s easy to let your family suffer for your work. Many of us do this because we see our jobs as a means of maintaining our families. We have thoughts such as ”I need to make more money so that my kids can go to college debt-free.” Though these thoughts are well-intentioned, they can burden your family with the biggest debt of all—a lack of quality time with you. When you’re on your deathbed, you won’t remember how much money you made for your spouse and kids. You’ll remember the memories you created with them.

3. Your sanity. While we all have our own levels of this to begin with, you don’t owe a shred of it to your employer. A job that takes even a small portion of your sanity is taking more than it’s entitled to. Your sanity is something that’s difficult for your boss to keep track of. You have to monitor it on your own and set good limits to keep yourself healthy. Often, it’s your life outside of work that keeps you sane. When you’ve already put in a good day’s (or week’s) work and your boss wants more, the most productive thing you can do is say no, then go and enjoy your friends and hobbies. This way, you return to work refreshed and de-stressed. You certainly can work extra hours if you want to, but it’s important to be able to say no to your boss when you need time away from work.

4. Your identity. While your work is an important part of your identity, it’s dangerous to allow your work to become your whole identity. You know you’ve allowed this to go too far when you reflect on what’s important to you and work is all that (or most of what) comes to mind. Having an identity outside of work is about more than just having fun. It also helps you relieve stress, grow as a person, and avoid burnout.

5. Your contacts. While you do owe your employer your best effort, you certainly don’t owe him or her the contacts you’ve developed over the course of your career. Your contacts are a product of your hard work and effort, and while you might share them with your company, they belong to you.

6. Your integrity. Sacrificing your integrity causes you to experience massive amounts of stress. Once you realize that your actions and beliefs are no longer in alignment, it’s time to make it clear to your employer that you’re not willing to do things his or her way. If that’s a problem for your boss, it might be time to part ways.

Bringing It All Together

Success and fulfillment often depend upon your ability to set good boundaries. Once you can do this, everything else just falls into place.

 What do you do to set boundaries around your work? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below, as I learn just as much from you as you do from me.

Travis co-wrote the bestselling book Emotional Intelligence 2.0 and co-foundedTalentSmart, the world’s #1 provider of emotional intelligence tests and training, serving 75% of Fortune 500 Companies.

 

Forbes.com |  February 2, 2016 | Travis Bradberry

#Strategy : 7 Ways To Blow Your Boss’s Mind…You’re Putting the Work In, So Why Aren’t you Getting Rewarded? The Answer is Simple: You Don’t Get Promoted for Fulfilling your #Boss’s Expectations.

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We all want to get ahead. Still, even when it seems you’re doing everything right—you’re never late to work, rarely take a sick day, and always meet deadlines—promotions can be few and far between.

 

You’re putting the work in, so why aren’t you getting rewarded? The answer is simple: you don’t get promoted for fulfilling your boss’s expectations.

Your boss’s expectations are the price of entry. Even if you’re making a great effort and doing all that’s asked of you, you won’t stand out. You’ll be seen as someone who completes the minimum requirements, and no one who builds a great career is seen this way.

The trick to advancing your career and getting paid more is to add value by making certain your contributions are worth more than you’re paid. You want to go above and beyond so that you’re seen as someone highly valuable—someone the organization can’t live without.

You should aim to exceed your boss’s expectations so much that he feels like he’sthe smartest guy in the world for hiring you.

This isn’t as hard as it sounds. In fact, you can blow your boss’s mind in seven easy steps.

Step 1: Beyond developing the skills you need for your job, learn about your company’s industry, competitors, latest developments, and challenges. 

Professional development is important, but why stop there? If you really want to blow your boss’s mind, soak up everything you can about your company and your industry. For example, if you’re an IT developer, instead of simply learning the current best practices in coding, learn how those practices are being applied throughout your industry.

Transferring your knowledge to the real-world context of your organization is a great way to add value. On top of knowing how to do your job, it shows that you know why you’re doing it and why it matters.

 

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Step 2: Instead of always having the answer, pre-empt the question.

It’s a good feeling when you can answer your boss’s questions on the spot, without shuffling through piles of paper or telling her that you’ll have to get back to her. But if you really want to blow her mind, pre-empt the question. Anticipate what she wants to stay on top of, and send her regular updates. You’ll save her time and energy, and she’ll appreciate that just as much as your enthusiasm.

Step 3: Instead of owning up to mistakes once they’re discovered, bring them to light yourself.

Accountability is a lost art. Too many people try to cover up their mistakes, fearing the repercussions of admitting fault. Show your boss that you’re not afraid to own up to your mistakes, and he’ll be amazed. When you make a mistake, just give your boss a simple heads-up, and have a solution ready. Even better, tell him the steps you’ve already taken to mitigate the problem.

Everyone makes mistakes. You’ll stand out by showing your boss that you’re accountable, creative, and proactive when you inevitably make them.

Step 4: Instead of asking for training, do it on your own.

Typical career advice is to ask your boss to send you to classes and workshops to improve your skills. But we’re not talking about what’s typical; we’re talking about blowing your boss’s mind. Pursue training yourself, on your own time. It doesn’t have to be expensive; there are plenty of online courses available free or close to free. While everybody else is asking the boss to send them to training, you can tell her what you’ve already done, and your initiative will be rewarded. You’ll save the company money and get ahead, and expand your skillset at the same time.

Step 5: Instead of doing what you’re told, be proactive.

Anybody (well, almost anybody) can do what they’re told. To blow your boss’s mind, you have to be proactive. If you see a problem, fix it. If you see something that needs doing, do it. Put together a how-to guide for new hires, document your processes and figure out where you can streamline them, or do whatever else you can think of to make a difference.

Bosses appreciate vision more than anything. They love it when you see what could be useful to the company over the long term—and don’t forget to tell your boss about it. It’s only “kissing up” if you do it manipulatively or with the intention of making your co-workers look bad. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with owning your accomplishments.

Step 6: Build relationships with other departments.

It’s practically guaranteed that, at some point, your department will need help or input from another area. An excellent way to blow your boss’s mind is to build relationships throughout the company. Person-to-person interactions are almost always more effective than department-to-department exchanges. You can make your boss’s day by saying, “Why don’t I take care of that for you? I know someone who can get that done for us right away.”

Step 7: Be the calm one in a crisis.

Few things get your boss’s attention like your ability to weather a storm. Whether it’s conflict between people, everyone freaking out over a rule change, or what have you, make certain that you’re the one who remains calm, composed, and in control of your emotions. Your composure and ability to think clearly during a crisis demonstrates leadership potential, and leaders get promoted.

Bringing It All Together

The people who achieve the most are those who add the most value. Business is, after all, about making a profit. You want your boss and the company to know that they’re getting a great return on the time and money they’re investing in you.

What are some other great ways to blow your boss’s mind? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below as I learn just as much from you as you do from me.

 

Forbes.com | September 29, 2015 | Travis Bradberry

#Strategy : How To Deal With A Workplace Bully: Advice For Victims, Bosses, & Co-Workers…Bullies are Often Reluctant to Change their Behavior Because it Works for Them.

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While Most People Think of Bullies as Kids, Bullying Doesn’t End with High School. Childhood bullies often grow up to become office bullies. In fact, the Workplace Bullying Institute, estimates that up to one-third of employees may be victims of workplace bullying.

 

What Workplace Bullies Do

Workplace bullies behave similarly to teen bullies. In addition to intimidating their victims, they may spread rumors to tarnish a co-worker’s reputation, or fail to invite an employee to a key team meeting. They may also make fun of their co-workers or tell inappropriate jokes at a victim’s expense.

Bullying isn’t just detrimental to victims, it damages the entire work environment. Workplace bullies impact every level of business, from productivity and profitability to creativity and office morale.

 

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How to Deal with Workplace Bullies

To gain more insight into how to best deal with workplace bullies, I spoke with Sherri Gordon, About.com’s Bullying Expert and the author of 10 books,  including Are You Being Abused? Gordon offered her expertise for dealing with an office bully.

 Amy Morin: What should someone who has been bullied at work do?

Sherri Gordon: Being bullied has serious consequences, especially if it is long-term. So do what you can to protect your mental and physical health. One way to do that is recognize what you can control and what you cannot control. In other words, you cannot control what a bully says or does, but you can control your response.

It is also a good idea to set boundaries with a bully. Be direct about what you do not like about his behavior and let him know that if he continues you will report him. Try not to get emotional when you are talking to a bully because he will likely use this against you.

If the bullying continues and is not a one-time incident of mean behavior, report it to your supervisor. And if the bully is your supervisor, go to his supervisor.

Be sure that you have documentation of the incident, including dates, times and witnesses. Be sure your presentation is as professional as possible. Stick to the facts and ask for a resolution to the issue.

Morin: What should someone do if a co-worker is being bullied?

Gordon: If another employee is bullied, offer to be a friend. Invite your co-worker to have lunch or coffee and just listen. Encourage the employee to report the bullying as well. While you could report the bullying, it is better when victims advocate for themselves.

Avoid listening to gossip or rumors and stand up for the victim when you can. For instance, simply saying something like, “She has always been nice to me,” or “I have always thought she was very professional,” are simple ways to show support for the victim and to stop the bully from spreading rumors. You can also walk away and refuse to engage in trashing another employee’s reputation.

Morin: How should a leader or supervisor respond to bullying?

Gordon: Workplace bullies tend to target the co-workers who are the best and brightest employees because they want to drive out anyone they see as a threat to their own personal career advancement. Bullies attack the very people you want working for your company.

Foster a team atmosphere and encourage people to work together and support one another. Also, be sure to squash any attempts employees make to gossip, spread rumors or to talk poorly about other co-workers.

For instance, if an employee says “I probably shouldn’t tell you this, but…” stop him or her right there and say, “Yep, you probably shouldn’t tell me.”

If, despite your best efforts, you still have an employee that bullies another employee, address it right away. If you have a human resources department, be sure to bring it to their attention. Be sure to follow your company’s guidelines for addressing workplace bullying and harassment.

If your company is small and does not have an HR department, talk with the employee about his or her actions. Document the incident in the employee’s file. Include details about the incident, information about your meeting, as well as dates, times and witnesses so that you have this information should the employee bully the same person again or a different person. At the close of the meeting, be sure that the offending employee knows what could happen if he or she continues to bully others.

Do not pull the victim of the bullying into the meeting with you. Remember, a victim of bullying often feels intimidated by the aggressor, so your attempts to get the full story or to mediate the situation will not be productive. You need to speak with them both separately.

Once you have addressed the issue, follow up on the situation to see if any additional bullying has occurred. You may need to monitor this situation for several months or a year. Bullies are often reluctant to change their behavior because it works for them.

Amy Morin is a psychotherapist, keynote speaker, and the author of 13 Things Mentally Strong People Don’t Do, a bestselling book that is being translated into more than 20 languages. 

 

Forbes.com | August 21, 2015 | Amy Morin

 

 

#Leadership: Toxic #Boss? How Successful People Overcome Them…7 of the Most Common Types of Bad Bosses & the Strategies that #SuccessfulPeople Employ to Work Effectively with Them.

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Bad Bosses Contaminate the #Workplace. Some do so obliviously, while others smugly Manipulate their #Employees, using them as instruments of their own success.  Regardless of their methods, bad bosses cause irrevocable damage to their companies and employees by hindering performance and creating unnecessary stress.  The stress your boss causes is bad for your health. Multiple studieshave found that working for a bad boss increases your chance of having a heart attack by as much as 50%.

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Have you ever seen the movie Office Space? Don't be that guy.

Have you ever seen the movie Office Space? Don’t be that guy.

Even more troubling is the number of bad bosses out there. Gallup research found that 60% of Government Workers are Miserable because of Bad Bosses. In another study 69% of U.S. workers compared bosses with too much power to toddlers with too much power.

The comparisons don’t stop there. Significant percentages of U.S. workers describe their bosses as follows:

  • Self-oriented (60%)
  • Stubborn (49%)
  • Overly demanding (43%)
  • Impulsive (41%)
  • Interruptive (39%)

Most bosses aren’t surprised by these statistics. A DDI study found that 64% of managers admit that they need to work on their management skills. When asked where they should focus their efforts, managers overwhelmingly say, “Bringing in the numbers”; yet, they are most often fired for poor people skills.

TalentSmart has conducted research with more than a million people, and we’ve found that 90% of top performers are skilled at managing their emotions in times of stress in order to remain calm and in control. One of their greatest gifts is the ability to neutralize toxic people—even those they report to. This is no easy task. It requires a great deal of emotional intelligence, a skill that top performers rely on.

While the best option when you have a bad boss is to seek other employment, this isn’t always possible.

Successful people know how to make the most of a bad situation. A bad boss doesn’t deter them because they understand that success is simply the product of how well you can play the hand you’ve been dealt. When that “hand” is a bad boss, successful people identify the type of bad boss they are working for and then use this information to neutralize their boss’ behavior.

What follows are 7 of the Most Common Types of Bad Bosses & the Strategies that #SuccessfulPeople Employ to Work Effectively with Them.

1. The Inappropriate Buddy

This is the boss who’s too friendly, and not in the fun, team-building sort of way. He is constantly inviting you to hang out outside of work and engages in unnecessary office gossip. He uses his influence to make friends at the expense of his work. He chooses favorites and creates divisions among employees, who become frustrated by the imbalance in attention and respect. He can’t make tough decisions involving employees or even fire those who need to be fired (unless he doesn’t like them). His office quickly becomes The Office.

How to neutralize an inappropriate buddy: The most important thing to do with this type of boss is to learn to set firm boundaries. Don’t allow his position to intimidate you. By consciously and proactively establishing a boundary, you can take control of the situation. For example, you can remain friendly with your boss throughout the day but still not be afraid to say no to drinks after work. The difficult part here is maintaining consistency with your boundaries, even if your boss is persistent. By distancing yourself from his behaviors that you deem inappropriate, you will still be able to succeed and even have a healthy relationship with your boss.

It’s important you don’t put up unnecessary boundaries that stop you from being seen as friendly (ideally, a friend). Instead of trying to change the crowd-pleaser and force him to be something he’s not, having him see you as an ally will put you in a stronger position than you could have anticipated.

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2. The Micromanager

This is the boss who makes you feel as if you are under constant surveillance. She thought your handwriting could use improvement, so she waited until you left work at 7:00 p.m. to throw away your pencils and replace them with the .9 lead mechanical pencils that have the “proper grip.” She has even handed back your 20-page report because you used a binder clip instead of a staple. The micromanager pays too much attention to small details, and her constant hovering makes employees feel discouraged, frustrated and even uncomfortable.

How to neutralize a micromanager: Successful people appeal to micromanagers by proving themselves to be flexible, competent, and disciplined while staying in constant communication. A micromanager is naturally drawn to the employee who produces work the way she envisions. The challenge with the micromanager is grasping the “envisioned way.” To do this, try asking specific questions about your project, check in frequently, and look for trends in the micromanager’s feedback.

Of course, this will not always work. Some micromanagers will never stop searching for something to over-analyze and micromanage. When this is the case, you must learn to derive your sense of satisfaction from within. Don’t allow your boss’ obsession with details to create feelings of inadequacy as this will only lead to further stress and underperformance. Remember, a good report without a staple is still a good report. Despite your boss’ fixation on detail, she appreciates your work; she just doesn’t know how to show it.

3. The Tyrant

The tyrant resorts to Machiavellian tactics and constantly makes decisions that feed his ego. His primary concern is maintaining power, and he will coerce and intimidate others to do so. The tyrant thinks of his employees as a criminal gang aboard his ship. He classifies people in his mind and treats them accordingly: High achievers who challenge his thinking are treated as mutinous. Those who support their achievements with gestures of loyalty find themselves in the position of first mate. Those who perform poorly are stuck cleaning the latrines and swabbing the decks.

How to neutralize a tyrant: A painful but effective strategy with the tyrant is to present your ideas in a way that allows him to take partial credit. The tyrant can then maintain his ego without having to shut down your idea. Always be quick to give him some credit, even though he is unlikely to reciprocate, because this will inevitably put you on his good side. Also, to survive a tyrant, you must choose your battles wisely. If you practice self-awareness and manage your emotions, you can rationally choose which battles are worth fighting and which ones you should just let go. This way, you won’t find yourself on latrine duty.

4. The Incompetent

This boss was promoted hastily or hired haphazardly and holds a position that is beyond her capabilities. Most likely, she is not completely incompetent, but she has people who report to her that have been at the company a lot longer and have information and skills that she lacks.

How to neutralize an incompetent: If you find yourself frustrated with this type of boss, it is likely because you have experience that she lacks. It is important to swallow your pride and share your experience and knowledge, without rubbing it in her face. Share the information that this boss needs to grow into her role, and you’ll become her ally and confidant.

5. The Robot

In the mind of the robot, you are employee number 72 with a production yield of 84% and experience level 91. This boss makes decisions based on the numbers, and when he’s forced to reach a conclusion without the proper data, he self-destructs. He makes little or no effort to connect with his employees, and instead, looks solely to the numbers to decide who is invaluable and who needs to go.

How to neutralize a robot: To succeed with a robot, you need to speak his language. When you have an idea, make certain you have the data to back it up. The same goes with your performance—you need to know what he values and be able to show it to him if you want to prove your worth. Once you’ve accomplished this, you can begin trying to nudge him out of his antisocial comfort zone. The trick is to find ways to connect with him directly, without being pushy or rude. Schedule face-to-face meetings and respond to some of his e-mails by knocking on his door. Forcing him to connect with you as a person, however so slightly, will make you more than a list of numbers and put a face to your name. Just because he’s all about the numbers, it doesn’t mean you can’t make yourself the exception. Do so in small doses, however, because he’s unlikely to respond well to the overbearing social type.

6. The Visionary

Her strength lies in her ideas and innovations. However, this entrepreneurial approach becomes dangerous when a plan or solution needs to be implemented, and she can’t bring herself to focus on the task at hand. When the time comes to execute her vision, she’s already off onto the next idea, and you’re left to figure things out on your own.

How to neutralize a visionary: To best deal with this type, reverse her train of thought. She naturally takes a broad perspective, so be quick to funnel things down into something smaller and more practical. To do so, ask a lot of specific questions that force her to rationally approach the issue and to consider potential obstacles to executing her broad ideas. Don’t refute her ideas directly, or she will feel criticized; instead, focus her attention on what it will take to realistically implement her plan. Oftentimes, your questions will diffuse her plan, and when they don’t, they’ll get her to understand—and commit to—the effort it’s going to take on her part to help make it happen.

7. The Seagull

We’ve all been there—sitting in the shadow of a seagull manager who decided it was time to roll up his sleeves, swoop in and squawk up a storm. Instead of taking the time to get the facts straight and work alongside the team to realize a viable solution, the seagull deposits steaming piles of formulaic advice and then abruptly takes off, leaving everyone else behind to clean up the mess. Seagulls interact with their employees only when there’s a fire to put out. Even then, they move in and out so hastily—and put so little thought into their approach—that they make bad situations worse by frustrating and alienating those who need them the most.

How to neutralize a seagull: A group approach works best with seagulls. If you can get the entire team to sit down with him and explain that his abrupt approach to solving problems makes it extremely difficult for everyone to perform at their best, this message is likely to be heard. If the entire group bands together and provides constructive, non-threatening feedback, the seagull will more often than not find a better way to work with his team. It’s easy to spot a seagull when you’re on the receiving end of their airborne dumps, but the manager doing the squawking is often unaware of the negative impact of his behavior. Have the group give him a little nudge, and things are bound to change for the better.

Bringing It All Together

If you think these strategies might help others, please share this article with your network. Research suggests that roughly half of them are currently working for a bad boss!

And please share your thoughts in the comments section below as I learn just as much from you as you do from me.

Forbes.com | June 17, 2015 | Travis Bradberry 

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