18 Ways to Be a Great Boss

8/13/2019 18 Ways to Be a Great Boss

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18 Ways to Be a Great Boss:

There are few career moments as exciting -- and these days, as perilous -- as

taking over the top job at a company, business unit, or department. But what

exactly do you do once you're in charge

This online guide provides !" tactics -- and case studies -- to help you take the

reigns running.

1.Begin your transition before you start the job .#se the interview process to

get an early jump on learning about the organi$ation. %sk critical &uestions (ow

are decisions made )hat are the key challenges )hich functions are strong,

and which ones need to be overhauled #se that information to build some initial

hypotheses about how you would change things for the better.

Take your cue from *teve Bennett who took over the + spot at ntuit +orp.

/The interview process is where you start,/ he says. /That's where you ask all ofthe &uestions about what it takes to be successful./

2.Travel widely within your organization, listen arefully, and loo! for

"atterns in everything you see and hear.Bruce 0atton, co-author of Difficult

Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Mostand a partner with 1antage

0artners, a Boston-based relationship management consulting firm, advises new

leaders to spend a lot of time listening and asking &uestions. Talk to employees

up and down the hierarchy. /*oon you'll start to see a pattern about what's going

on,/ he says.

)ithin his first month on the job, *teve Bennett hit the road and tested thehypotheses that he had formed during his interviews. n 23 days, he visited

do$ens of locations and talked to hundreds of people, gathering feedback and

insight on what was right - and wrong - with the firm's operations.

#.$s you as! %uestions, loo! for the rising stars who& you want as "art of

your tea&.4our listening tour may help you identify the key players whose skills

you need as part of your management team. /f you're engaging in high &uality

in&uiry, you'll want to keep people who had good answers,/ 0atton says.

%sking tough &uestions is a critical skill, but not necessarily a pleasantexperience.

'.(dentify the !ind of "eo"le who will flourish in the environ&ent you want

to establish.ven before interviewing people to assemble your team, take the

time to identify the challenges ahead -- and the kind of people who are motivated

by those situations.


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)hen *cott 5ut$ was tapped to lead "th +ontinent, a soy-milk company borne of

a 63-63 joint venture between two corporate giants, 7u0ont and 8eneral 9ills,

he knew he needed to assemble a team of renegades - people with /the right mix

of passion and courage,/ 5ut$ describes. /They had to be willing to do things that

hadn't been done before./

). $fter you*ve identified the ideal individual, identify the ideal grou". +on*t

sto" at finding the ty"e of "erson you need.nvision how this person will

interact with others to get the goals accomplished. %ssemble the ideal team. n

some cases, literally.

)hen 0at 8illick took over a mediocre *eattle 9ariners club in !:::, he was

keenly aware of the kind of group it would take to win a )orld *eries. /+hemistry

is unbelievably critical,/ 8illick says.

/f you come into a workplace, and there is inconsistency, there are disruptive

employees, or you don't know what to expect, then you won't be a motivated

employee./ The 9ariners' &uest for a happy clubhouse includes paying close

attention to the wives and kids of the players. 8illick meets with wives early in the

season to work out everything from ticketing to security to the potentially

inflammatory problem of who sits where.

.$!nowledge what you don*t !now.dentify those around you are the

experts and don't be afraid to lean on them. ;o one expects an incoming leader

to know everything. %nd perhaps there is nothing more off-putting to a future

team than someone who mistakenly thinks he or she does.

%fter !6 years as a manufacturing engineer at Boeing, Bruce 9oravec had

mastered his technical discipline. But when he was promoted to run the feet, add

functionality, and do it in less than two years, he understood he'd have to gain

the confidence of people who worked in areas he knew little about.

/ had lots of credibility as a manufacturing engineer and second-level manager.

But suddenly was responsible for tool design, fuselage definition, all kinds of

areas that weren't in my background./

-.+on*t be afraid to listen to "eo"le who disagree . 5isten, actively, to thepeople around you, especially those who challenge your assumptions.

Take it from +arlos 8hosn, ;issan's president and + and the engineer of the

company's dramatic turnaround. /)hen came to ;issan, engaged in what

call 'active listening' with as many people as could. also got a lot of advice

from outside the company, most of which was very conservative. 0eople told me,

'4ou can't go fast in ?apan. 4ou can't close plants in ?apan. 4ou can't reduce

head count.' listened carefully, even to the opinions that totally contradicted my


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own beliefs, to make sure that when made my decisions, hadn't missed

anything./

8.But lean house if you have to.7epending on the situation you step into, no

matter how clear your vision is, and how evangelical you are, acknowledge that

there may be people - some of whom may have already seen your predecessorscome and go -- who are too jaded to follow.

Take 7ale @uller's experience. )hen he took over an ailing Borland *oftware,

which at one time was a pioneer in developing developer tools, five different

+s had already come and go in the preceding three years.

*keptics assumed that @uller was the latest in a series of short-term custodians.

Aather than embrace the new direction, they figured that they'd just wait @uller

out. @uller had other ideas. )ithin six months, he fired about >33 people,

including 3 of his top managers.

./stablish a way to o&&uniate with 00 and listen to 00 your entire tea& .

4our strategic course of action is only as effective as your ability to communicate

it. (ave the pipeline and protocol set up to get your message out there, and don't

forget that communication goes both ways.

7ick Brown took over 7* in !::: and moved swiftly to change old beliefs and

behaviors, unleashing a set of practices -- dubbed /operating mechanisms/ --

that were designed to create a company-wide culture based on instant feedback

and direct, unfiltered communication. ne of these practices is the /monthly

performance call./

%t the beginning of each month, !=6 of the company's top worldwide executives

punch into a conference call that begins promptly at < %9 central daylight time.

0articipation is not optional.

1.+on*t trash your "redeessor, but don*t be shy about "ro&oting your

own agenda.7o not assume that the prior administration screwed up or lost

sight of the big picture. There's probably an element of truth in that.

But it's almost certainly true that they had a different disaster that they were

working to avoid, 0atton says. f you've got a clear vision of what needs to be

fixed, by all means, implement it. Then ask yourself what led those really smart

people to do what they did in such a way that it made sense to themTalk about a predecessor when 9elvin )earing took over the role of chief of

police for ;ew (aven, +onnecticut, he filled the controversial shoes of someone

who resigned after fathering an illegitimate child with a convicted prostitute. n

@ebruary =>, !::


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11.ettle on a few &ajor "riorities.4ou can't fix everything at once. /Typically,

you can't do everything you want to do, so you need to make some strategic

choices,/ 0atton says. /This is where you begin to align the organi$ation around

a common vision for the future./

0erhaps )earing's most far-reaching legacy will be his focus on &uality-of-life

crimes -- the so-called broken-windows approach to policing. ?ust as Audy

8iuliani cracked down on ;ew 4ork's s&ueegee men, )earing declared war on

;ew (aven's vagrants and hookers, street-corner dealers, and boom-box

blasters. By nipping misdemeanors in the bud, )earing argues, police may deter

more-serious crimes. (is approach seems to be working. n !::


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organi$ation, many people will want your attention. )hile it's pleasant to swap

stories about each other's golf game, you're better off saving them for the

fairway, and using the time in the office to engage in a learning-oriented

conversation. /

(ere's a tip +reate a /*top 7oing/ 5ist. Take a look at your desk. f you're likemost hard-charging leaders, you've got a well-articulated to-do list. ;ow take

another look )here's your stop-doing list )e've all been told that leaders make

things happen -- and that's true. But it's also true that great leaders distinguish

themselves by their unyielding discipline to stop doing anything and everything

that doesn't fit.

1).+on*t be afraid to &a!e &ista!es but be sure to fi5 the& faster than you

&a!e the&.%ny new situation is fraught with ha$ards, but taking over a top job

exposes a new leader to pitfalls ranging from the personal to the organi$ational.

%ccept that you can't know everything in your first six months, and even an

extensive professional background can't insulate you from making mistakes in an

unfamiliar company and culture. The key is to assess yourself and your progress

as rigorously as you do your new colleagues and workplace, and to be prepared

to make your own course corrections as you go along.

5ast year, 5ydia *hire and 0aul 5icari took over 5ocke-ber, a Boston restaurant

and Brahmin institution founded in !"


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-- one per +. ach new + arrived with his own programE each + halted

the momentum of his predecessor.

1-.+on*t be afraid to loo! for ideas in unusual "laes.7on't just read your

own industry's trade journals. +ast a wide net for insights -- sometimes the

breakthrough idea lies in the triumphs of a completely different industry.)hen Aob 9cwen, took over an underperforming gold mine in northwestern

ntario, he assumed a tough situation The gold market was depressed, the

mine's operating costs were high, and miners were on strike. (is breakthrough -

an unprecedented move to make his company's proprietary information public

and launching a contest to develop the mine over the nternet - came from

learning about the 5inux operating system and the open-source revolution.

18.6inally, as! yourself who do you really want to "revail, you or your

organization74ou'd be surprised by the difference.

+onsider this ?im +ollins and his team at *tanford 8raduate *chool of Business

and asked, what makes a good company great They started with !,>26 good

companies, examined their performance over >3 years, and then identified !!

companies that became great.

(ere's one thing they found The +s who took their companies from good to

great were largely anonymous -- a far cry from the celebrity +s we read

about. +ollins believes this is more a matter of cause and effect than an accident.

There is something directly related between the absence of celebrity and the

presence of good-to-great results.

)hy @irst, when you have a celebrity, the company turns into /the one genius

with !,333 helpers./ t creates a sense that the whole thing is really about the

+. %nd that leads to all sorts of problems - especially if the person goes away

or if the person turns out not to be a genius after all.

18 Ways to Be a Great Boss

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