Friend or foe? 10 behaviors that will betray your boss
How do you see your boss – as a friend or an enemy? Is he on your side or are you already on his internal hit list? Is it just about his team performing well and pocketing the medals or is he promoting your professional and personal development? Bosses tick very differently: from the authoritarian block of ice to the boss on a cozy course to the sandwich manager and flags in the wind. Is your boss good, does he embody a modern leadership attitude, and is your professional relationship right? Here are 10 of your manager’s behaviors that will help you identify them. Vote at the Chef-Check and see how other readers rated their bosses.
What employees want from their bosses today
If you belong to the young generation of employees or young professionals, then recognition and appreciation are probably very important to you. You are in the mood for top performance and can really hang out if the challenge is fun and you can identify with what you are doing. Power games are alien to you and you could do without the bonus payment for Christmas. But you want to earn individual appreciation for good performance. The boss should see what you are doing, be a role model and encourage you individually in your personal and professional development.
As an experienced professional, you have already gotten to know different bosses and their leadership styles for a few years. You no longer need power-obsessed know-it-all bosses who have to prove themselves to you, instead you want sparring partners who are to be taken seriously at eye level. Whether your manager is 30, the same age, or older than you, does not matter for a good working relationship. The main thing is that she/he leads well! – at least that’s what I hear from most middle-aged job changers.
Regardless of whether they are just starting in their careers or experienced professionals, today’s bosses are expected to be interested in their employees and their opinions, to be personal companions and a clever sparring partner. You should be loyal and predictable, make decisions, and set a good role model both professionally and personally. They should provide support and orientation in an environment that is increasingly characterized by uncertainty, complexity, and speed. They should show their employees the direction and at the same time keep their backs free so that they can do their work. The result instead of presence is the motto because most employees nowadays prefer to be guided in a goal-oriented rather than task-oriented manner.
10 behaviors that characterize good bosses today
Here are 10 behaviors of bosses concerning you as an employee that express modern leadership. Which of these applies to your manager?
If you see a lot of these behaviors in your boss, then you will likely make a good team today. If you could only agree with a few or even none of the statements: Don’t panic! It doesn’t have to mean that your boss is dead or not by you.
Even if these 10 behaviors sound self-evident, it is a very modern attitude as a manager, in which the old-school bosses, who are still authoritarian or patriarchal, have often not yet arrived. Even if it sounds absurd to you at this moment: Then give your manager a little help. After all, leadership is not a one-way street!
Get out of the victim role: get your boss on track!
As an employee, you too have many opportunities to shape the behavior of your manager and the cooperation as a good team. What you can do if your boss has too little focus on you, I wrote about that recently. Bosses have no training in mind reading, so say what is important to you in your job and for good cooperation. Tell them what concerns you when it comes to leadership and what you need and expect from your employer to be motivated and do a really good job.
Because that is exactly why you are there and receive a monthly salary – unless you are really on the hit list and are nothing more than an unpleasant cost item. But then you should see that you are gaining land and giving your boss the cold shoulder as well. Because working time is lifetime and painful perseverance for CV hygiene is yesterday’s career thinking.
If you are dissatisfied with the leadership skills of your boss and it is important to you that the cooperation is on a good footing, then you actively seek the conversation. Important: Make sure that he does not take your feedback as a charge or accusation. Do not talk about their supposed misconduct, but above all about yourself: Describe the observations you have made, how you perceive the behavior, how it affects you, and what you would like to see instead. Explain the background to your feedback and why it is so important to you. Because in this way you allow your manager to understand your perspective and to classify it correctly.
Boss remains boss. Of course, he or she has the right to decide what your feedback means for their own thoughts and actions. But even if nothing changes in the desired direction afterward, you have also become active as your own boss of life. In the vast majority of cases, this is the better alternative compared to passive perseverance.
Friend or foe: your boss’s perspective decides!
What is your own attitude towards your manager? Do you see him or her as a friendly supporter or as a hostile threat? Does the fear overwhelm you when your boss walks past your office in the hallway? Or are you happy that he is seeking contact with his employees? Do you team up with your colleagues against him or do you pull together as a good team with common goals?
Sometimes it seems to me today that bosses per se are turned into bogeymen by their role and the tasks associated with them. The belief quickly becomes established: bosses are bad and the natural enemy of every employee. Because they are personally to blame for too much work, too high demands and they shamelessly use the power to influence their sheep. Yes, it is that easy to declare your boss to be a personal enemy. But is that really true or aren’t you just looking for a stupid culprit among your frustrated colleagues?
Suppose your boss is not your enemy but your colleague and friend. So just as purely hypothetical. How could he or she support you in your daily work? As a good team, what could you learn from each other? In which specific situations could your new “friend” be useful to you?
Just try it out in the next few days. If you see your boss more as an enemy, then consciously banish this familiar image from your head and see him or your boss once more through the uncolored and friendly glasses. If your manager does not actually belong to the very rare species “bullies” or “fellow workers”, you will be amazed at the different light in which you suddenly see certain behaviors and, above all, the new opportunities this opens up for you in your daily work.
In the end, it is of course your own decision whether you work against your boss or with him and thus benefit from his experience and knowledge. Because whether your boss is a friend or an enemy, you too have a great influence on your thoughts and actions.