The First Requirement for Becoming a Great Boss
by Linda Hill & Kent Lineback
Among the many requirements placed
on those who take responsibility for the performance of others, there is one
that is rarely mentioned. Yet, ironically, it may be the most important because
so much else depends on it.
That fundamental requirement is
courage.
We don’t just mean the courage to
make hard decisions or take tough actions, such as giving difficult feedback, denying a promotion to
someone who’s good but not good enough, cutting popular but unsuccessful
programs, or even laying off people when the economy goes bad.
We mean all that — those and similar
actions do require courage — but we also mean something even harder: the
need to see ourselves as others see us, even when others’ perceptions don’t
match our own. Risking the possibility of finding out that others don’t
consider us the capable, well-intentioned bosses we think we are requires
enormous courage.
We know a highly competent and
caring manager whose people had to spend several late nights completing an
important project. Though the work didn’t require her presence, she stayed
late, too, as a way of sharing their burden and showing her support and
appreciation. Weeks later, only after she thought to ask, she learned that
those who stayed late resented what she did. Rather than seeing her presence as
a sign of her support for them, they took it to mean she didn’t trust them to
complete the work on time. Her presence thus weakened the bonds among them all
and achieved the opposite of her intentions. She found this out only because
she happened to ask casually.
How many of us blithely — and
incorrectly — go along thinking that others see us as we see ourselves?
Another manager thought he was a
good delegator that in fact he may have been delegating too much. But his
people considered him an overbearing micromanager. He was shocked and hurt by
this revelation, which forced him to rethink much of his relationship with
them. Yet another person we know thought he was communicating clearly how much he cared about the group he headed and its work.
But many of his people thought he only cared for how he looked and his own
career.
To understand why this is so
important, think for a moment about what you do as a boss. To fulfill your
responsibility for the work of others, you strive to influence others. You
attempt to make a difference in what they do and in the thoughts and feelings
that drive their actions.
There are several ways you can do
this but, except for coercion — “Do it or I’ll fire you!” — All forms of
influence begin with trust. People must be willing to be influenced, and that
willingness comes only from trust.
Do the people you work with — your
reports, colleagues, and superiors — trust you? By breaking trust into its two
core components, we can ask the same question in a more useful way: Do people
believe you’re competent — that you know what to do and how to do it as
a boss? Second, do people have confidence in your character — your
intentions and values, what you want to do and what you care about most? Trust
is about the future and people’s ability to predict what you will do. For that,
both your abilities (competence) and your intentions (character) to do what’s
right are critical.
Perhaps you’re thinking, “I’m
basically competent and, heaven knows, I mean well.” If you think that, beware.
Lots of research (including Linda’s own, as well as Kent’s experience) makes
one thing clear: most bosses overestimate how positively others see them. The
fact is, you don’t know how others see you or whether they trust you, if you
don’t somehow ask.
How do you ask? It’s not easy. If
people don’t trust you, if they hold a low opinion of you as a boss, they’re
highly unlikely to tell you outright. Even when others hold you in high regard,
they will still hesitate to be candid about those areas where you need to
improve. And it certainly doesn’t help that incompetent, insecure bosses often
ask for people’s opinions. “You can tell me the truth,” they say, but everyone
knows they’re looking for praise, and that criticism will only anger them.
How to proceed given these
obstacles? That will be the subject of our next blog because it deserves and
requires more space and time than we can give it here. Our point now is that
you must work proactively to find out what others think of you as a boss. Few
of your colleagues and direct reports will volunteer such information.
Whatever you do, however you do it,
you will need courage just to seek such feedback, and even more to digest and
take action based on it. But there’s no other way to become a great boss. No
wonder there aren’t more of them around.
Taken from
http://blogs.hbr.org/2011/08/the-first-requirement-for-beco/