My friend’s oxymoronic statement last night was quite eye-opening. “When someone says,’S/he is a PERFECT boss’, you’ll know s/he is NOT a good boss,” he remarked. “So that means being a good boss requires one to be a really hateful, mean person,” I asked him. He nodded gently, as he read the lines I typed on my screen. He calls himself an HR consultant, an euphemism for a freelancer of human resource affairs. So to speak.
Yet, I beg to differ. Some bosses are not even considered a good one by their subordinates but still they, in a major way, suck at work. They don’t show their expected performance, they lack professionalism, they fail to let you have a good example to look up to, they hardly ever communicate effectively and create so much misunderstanding and shame in the process of business. And the list goes on, literally.
So what makes a perfect boss? I really want to know, I asked my friend. So this would lead you to a better working environment. And this could be useful too for those who want to become a boss themselves. Because even if you’re a boss, you’re nothing without employees, and employees desire a good boss. Whatever “good” may mean to each of them.
There are many aspects of a good boss, told the so-called expert of human resource to me. He chopped them down into 4 main aspects.
1. Business knowledge: It’s all about the business acumen of a given boss. S/he must have the knowledge about the business aspects, e.g. financial, global situations, macro economics, political development that may affect his/ her business performance. He also mentioned about the significance of business insights.
2. Leadership: This encompasses various competencies of leadership such as establishing direction, coaching (being a coach to
subordinates), having some vision and the ability to sell it, and so forth.
3. Interpersonal: Can your boss show you his/ her skills in
communication, forging strategic partnerships, knack for managing uncertainty? If s/he doesn’t, chances are conflicts owing to miscommunication often arise.
4. Intrapersonal: It’s all about him/ herself, personal growth orientation, executive disposition, passion for results.
Needless to say, there’s no such a human being like this having the entire set of skills and knowledge, expertise, experience and basically all each of us want from a boss. And because we’re not perfect employees ourselves, don’t try to find a perfect boss anyway. You’ll only frustrate yourself.
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