Good Boss, Bad Boss

In episode 24 of the 1:1 Career Conversation Podcast, I spoke to George Corbin about one subject, Good Boss, Bad Boss.

We spoke about what makes a good boss, what makes a bad boss, how to pick a boss and what to do when you get a new boss. Here is a transcript of when I asked George what makes a GOOD boss and what makes a BAD boss.

You can listen to the full episode here or on your podcast app of choice:

https://anchor.fm/theonetooneconversation/episodes/EP24-George-Corbin---Good-Boss--Bad-Boss-ejr3l5

CHRIS: George. I'm so grateful that we can speak again today. And, firstly, how are you?

GEORGE: Doing great. And thanks for inviting you back.

CHRIS: No thunderstorms today.

GEORGE: Fingers crossed

CHRIS: Fingers crossed. Thanks for coming back on. So, we've got a slightly different episode today. We're going to try and keep it under 15 minutes and we're going to focus on one specific topic, which is good boss, bad boss.

I personally own so much of my career to leaders have had, I've had the pleasure of working with, and people who've taken a chance. People who've put their necks on the line, frankly, too many to mention. but you spoke about good bosses and bad bosses in our previous conversation, which was episode 22.

What do you mean and why is it important to talk about?

GEORGE: Well, so it's a really timely question. you know, with all the economic turmoil right now, A lot of people find themselves getting a new boss or reevaluating if they want to work with their current. First, off 75% of people who quit, they don't quit their job, they actually quit their boss. Your supervisor makes an enormous difference in your job satisfaction and your career advancement. So, in fact, having a great boss is the number one contributor to employee habits. So, what does a good boss look like versus a bad boss? I mean, no boss is perfect.

They, we, all have strengths and weaknesses but I'd say in my experience, certain traits have proven to be, I think, particularly important. I would say it's along these dimensions again, this could, this could be a lengthy list, but this is, this to me, is, is the shortlist that has made all the difference.

I would say it's along with the parameters of strategic clarity, you know, I'll describe what I mean by these. So strategic clarity, trust, support, and safety, decisiveness and accountability. I want to put those together and I'll say why and then coach and mentor. So, I guess that's four, not three anyway.

So ideally what you want is a boss who can paint for you a very vivid and inspiring picture of the destination. That is here's where we're heading. Here's what we're building towards. And then they set very clear performance goals. That tie your work to that destination and that is what a good boss will do.

Let's say that a poor boss, first of all, just lacks clarity about where all this is going. You're doing a lot of work, what's it for? Where's this taking us? What does it think? What are the things look like three years from now? And then they make it worse by frankly setting vague goals, sometimes even moving the goalposts and then reprimand you when you don't actually hit the moving goal. This is the one about strategic clarity. It makes a huge difference. Next one is this, this trust, support, and safety. Now the good bosses, both trust and empower you to do the right thing to deliver on the strategy.

They're going to give you a room to grow. They're going to give you air cover. If things get bumpy and they're going to have your back, they will also welcome your input. Right? And this, all these combined, not only demonstrate that they trust you, but also that you will trust them. And that's incredibly important.

I mean, trust is the, is the biggest anti-friction device in business and do so much more accomplished so much more go so much further. If you have trust and so this is, this is a vital piece of that. And some of us may have had bosses where you didn't have trust. You've may have had a boss who micromanages you or second guesses, all your choices there, there a, my way or the highway types.

They're not open to input and as a result, they, they don't trust you and therefore, you really don't trust them either. You're always feeling like you're on edge. it was only over the years that I came to really appreciate it.

The point about decisiveness and accountability. And some of that was, you know, from a couple of, I'd say, long time ago, some adverse experiences, but it really comes down to this all business involves unknowns and risk and imperfect information. People have very different comfort levels with that situation.

For you to be effective, ideally you want a boss who can be decisive under uncertainty. if it's somebody who just wants all the data to be absolutely 99%, certain, you're never going to have it. And you're going to find decisions are never made and it's very hard to make any progress.

So, you want this decisiveness, you want somebody who is proactive, not reactive about it. You don't want to get into its analysis paralysis and then secondly, with the decisiveness comes accountability. It's not only will they make a decision, but they will take personal ownership and accountability of the outcome of that decision.

If it goes great. Go ahead and hope you have somebody who gives the credit to the team that delivers if it doesn't. They take responsibility for failure. This is in contrast to something I experienced once many, many years ago. With someone who loved to take the credit for the wins but was quick to find a scapegoat for the failures and the whole team was always, always on edge.

So, look for this aspect of decisiveness and accountability.

The fourth one was coaching and mentoring. So is this person going to be a good coach and mentor for you? This is going to be somebody who stretches you, who prepares you for what's next. They know that you need to keep moving up. They know that you need to do more and they're there to help you do that and that's in your interest. What I would say are the poor bosses whom I didn't spend any time on that or treat you as replaceable.

Certainly, entry-level jobs, many of us have probably encountered that where they're not, they don't care about developing you. for the next level, they'd rather pigeonhole you on a particular job because I wanted to stay in the job indefinitely so that I don't have to go find somebody else.

You want somebody who's going to coach and mentor and kind of celebrate your success. The employees are more productive. They're more engaged. They're more profitable for the company.

What is sometimes underappreciated is just how big a factor your bosses, or if you're a boss, then your leadership competency in that equation, in that productivity engagement, profitability equation and here's what the data shows.

This is based upon some, some feedback, data from it was collected by a group called Zenger Folkman that does leadership development for hundreds of companies around the world. They have data feedback data from three-quarters of a million employees who were rating 69,000 supervisors on 49 different leadership traits. So, this is a lot of data and good, hard data, here's what they found:

They found that a boss who has high self-awareness of their competencies, whether they're companies, these are good or bad, but if they have high self-awareness as a leader, of their leadership competencies. They have far happier employees than a boss with low self-awareness so that his bosses who are humble and open-minded tend to recognize and then strive to improve upon their own shortcomings and their employees.

These are over 50% happier and more engaged. Compared to employees of bosses who don't do this, basically, it's the difference between managers who are in self-denial about their actual competence versus managers who are humble and self-aware enough to know that, you know, they can always be better and, and improve.

Self-denial, about one's own weaknesses, can frankly be a career killer. So, if you have a boss and even more important if you are the boss and for your own sake, understand the power that your boss and you have them on fully satisfactory and get feedback. To make yourself better.

Take a 360 performance review. See what others say about your leadership styles. Find out what your blind spots are because the blind spots are, are what can, can ultimately derail you, you know, bad managers are a liability. Good managers are an asset work for the ladder and become one of those good bosses yourself.

I'll say for me personally, I've been amazingly blessed to have had three great bosses in my life. Where they perfect? No. Did some people struggle to work for them? Yes. But, to me, they had, they hit, they checked the boxes, right? They had strategic clarity. they fully supported and protected, their teams.

They took responsibility personally when things hit the fan and each of them was sort of the consummate servant leader that their first priority was the development and wellbeing of the employees in their charge and we all succeeded because of that.