How many entrepreneurs had a 3-5 year training as a boss, as a leader before their entrepreneurial career? Who can take the time to attend a seminar on leadership?
So what do we do? – We act and lead mostly in such a way, as we consider it right. Do our employees see it the same way? Has one of your employees ever approached you and said: “You are a great boss”? This probably doesn’t happen to many people.
What makes a good boss?
There are numerous seminars, workshops, specialist books or events with topics such as “Leading – But right! What do the employees think about it? – Punctual payment of salary, which should be appropriate or may be also gladly something more; praise and acknowledgment for the performed work; extensive further training possibilities; always an open ear for problems and understanding, if it concerns private affairs?
In companies different personalities meet each other. There is not only the boss and the employee. No, there is also the impulsive supervisor; the insecure intern; employees who seem to have eaten the wisdom of business management with spoons and want to tell their overly good-natured boss how to run a business properly.
Should you play boss from time to time?
Nip in the bud all the wishes, problems and personal sensitivities of the employees before they negatively infiltrate the whole company; express criticism as to how things are not to be done under any circumstances; simply put the apparently unproductive, unqualified or unintelligent employee outside the door? After all, at the end of the day, as an entrepreneur you have to see for yourself that the company is running.
What about the well-known Golden Mean?
Is the carrot and stick the best recipe not only for keeping the company productive and profitable, but also for developing and shaping the employee, recognising potential and steering him in the right direction – insofar as a leader is good enough to recognise this at an early stage and not throw in the towel the first time he fails? Sometimes employees have to be led to their limits in order to overcome them. In other cases, the limits must be clearly set. Here again the bridge to the meaning of work is built. If both parties pull in the same direction and move towards the same goal, much becomes easier.
Unhappy – Happy
Maybe a boss should play the game “Good boss – bad boss” from time to time to keep his company on course and to bind the employees who really want to and share the “vision” to the company in the long term, which in turn helps keep them on course. If he is lucky, the employees will recognize and appreciate it and one day someone will come to you – “boss, you are a good boss” – and then you need not be surprised.
Do you sometimes play this game or do you use a valuable alternative?
