Would your employees call you a great boss?
A great boss is a person who creates and maintains a safe, inspiring work environment where talented, engaged employees THRIVE.
The characteristics of GREAT bosses include Growth, Relationships, Excellence, Accountability and Teamwork.
One of the key ways to become a great boss is to create clear values and performance standards, then hold everyone, including yourself, accountable for both every day.
In environments where this is consistently practiced, employees are more engaged (40% or more), serve customers better (40% or more), and produce greater results and profits (30% or more.)
There are five specific characteristics of being a great boss which create the acronym GREAT. Let’s take a look at the first of these characteristics.
GROWTH
Great bosses are concerned about their team member’s growth. They want them to develop new skills, try new approaches, and gain confidence. A great boss does not let a team member “rest on his/her laurels” or allow skills to atrophy. Because the global marketplace is always changing, they know their team needs to be consistently adapting.
A great boss is also uplifting, validating team members’ efforts, ideas, and contributions to the company in tangible ways.
I have observed many bosses, good and not so good. Here are a few ways great bosses help their team members grow. Great bosses:
Boost standards. Customer expectations are constantly changing. Not only do they want competitive pricing, but they want products that meet or exceed their needs. Competitors want to boost their market share, so you cannot stand still. The great bosses I have seen review their performance standards at least annually. They stay on top of trends so they can help their team members improve efficiency and get high-quality products to the market to exceed their standards.
Build skills. You can have talented, engaged team members, but if their skills sets do not grow to match the needs of the company, you will have a problem. (How many companies do you know still use electric typewriters?) Team members must honestly assess their skills on a regular basis. Great bosses are also great coaches. They see where skills can be improved and provide training opportunities to ALL their team members (not just supervisors.)
Visit customers. You cannot know how to serve someone best if you are not sure who they are or what they need. Great bosses create opportunities for their team members to have interaction with customers. They prompt relationships (face-to-face if possible) with at least a segment of the client base so team members can uncover opportunities to serve their niche even more efficiently.
Share leadership. A great boss is not afraid to give team members a regular opportunity to lead. They encourage them to facilitate meetings or team sessions, present concepts (building their speaking skills) and oversee parts of larger projectcs. They also ask for ideas and solutions during casual conversation.
Are you growing as a great boss? Helping your team members grow is one of the best ways for you to grow–yourself.
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