5 Best Boss Behaviours I Want To Grow Into

As I read this article by the famous author, Brigette Hyacinth, I couldn’t help but smile at my brilliant luck in finding great bosses most times in my life. So, I took it as an opportunity to emulate her by giving a spin to this topic that is so close to my heart.

One of my first managers knew

everything about me. Things that my best friends did not know. As I struggled through a too-young marriage and career transitions, he told me things about my life I did not know then - that stay with me to date. He took a bet on me when I was a young mother-to-be and that is how I came upon a career in communications.

Good managers are like that. I can go through hours of traffic to reach work, create impossible presentations, write with great care, and work like I own the company - and be mindful that it will take me ages to reach their level of competence - all because of these people. I am so inspired by what I like in my set of good managers that I humbly want to emulate them.

5 Best Boss Behaviours I Want To Grow Into

1.    See the (whole) person

A person is never just an employee. They are a sum total of their emotional state, socio-cultural background, talent and unique needs. Once you have analysed and recruited them for your team, accept them and nurture them knowing that they need something different from the other person to thrive and do their best. My best bosses gave me wings; one even calls me a free bird that simply cannot be caged! This understanding gives me the freedom to work fearlessly, not having to look over my shoulder.

2.    Spot the trouble

We all falter. Good managers are humane enough to know it and smart enough to see it coming. Knowing when to pull your strings, just enough to bring you back in action and save you from that fall, is a sure good-boss quality. I haven't fallen flat on my face on several occasions thanks to these brilliant people.

3.    Create opportunities

If my manager hadn’t spotted that I was unhappy in my role and wasn’t doing half as well as he thought I should be, he wouldn’t have nudged me into another role. Enough said.

4.    Be the rock

At a professional low for me, a new manager took over. I was already interviewing for another job. She came in and sold me so hard to the rest of the company I just had to live up to it - at least until I was there.

5.    Let them go

One of my managers loved me enough to let me go to another team. It comes from recognizing that the employee needs to do something new, bigger, bolder. It takes a large heart and an unselfish disposition. And like all the “let them go” adages, I came back to her!

AUTHOR

 Aanandita Bhatnagar