8 Core Beliefs
of Extraordinary Bosses
The best managers
have a fundamentally different understanding of workplace, company,
With thanks to Geoffrey James at "Sales Source" , this is worth repeating.
A few years back,
I interviewed some of the most successful CEOs in the world in order to
discover their management secrets. I learned that the "best of the
best" tend to share the following eight core beliefs.
1. Business is
an ecosystem, not a battlefield.
Average bosses see business as a conflict between
companies, departments and groups. They build huge armies of "troops"
to order about, demonize competitors as "enemies," and treat customers
as "territory" to be conquered.
Extraordinary
bosses see business as a
symbiosis where the most diverse firm is most likely to survive and thrive.
They naturally create teams that adapt easily to new markets and can quickly
form partnerships with other companies, customers ... and even competitors.
2. A company
is a community, not a machine.
Average bosses consider their company to be a machine
with employees as cogs. They create rigid structures with rigid rules and then
try to maintain control by "pulling levers" and "steering the
ship."
Extraordinary
bosses see their company
as a collection of individual hopes and dreams, all connected to a higher
purpose. They inspire employees to dedicate themselves to the success of their
peers and therefore to the community–and company–at large.
3. Management
is service, not control.
Average bosses want employees to do exactly what they're
told. They're hyper-aware of anything that smacks of insubordination and create
environments where individual initiative is squelched by the "wait and see
what the boss says" mentality.
Extraordinary
bosses set a general
direction and then commit themselves to obtaining the resources that their
employees need to get the job done. They push decision making downward,
allowing teams form their own rules and intervening only in emergencies.
4. My
employees are my peers, not my children.
Average bosses see employees as inferior, immature
beings who simply can't be trusted if not overseen by a patriarchal management.
Employees take their cues from this attitude, expend energy on looking busy and
covering their behinds.
Extraordinary
bosses treat every employee
as if he or she were the most important person in the firm. Excellence is
expected everywhere, from the loading dock to the boardroom. As a result,
employees at all levels take charge of their own destinies.
5. Motivation
comes from vision, not from fear.
Average bosses see fear--of getting fired, of ridicule,
of loss of privilege--as a crucial way to motivate people. As a result,
employees and managers alike become paralyzed and unable to make risky
decisions.
Extraordinary
bosses inspire people to
see a better future and how they'll be a part of it. As a result, employees
work harder because they believe in the organization's goals, truly enjoy what
they're doing and (of course) know they'll share in the rewards.
6. Change
equals growth, not pain.
Average bosses see change as both complicated and
threatening, something to be endured only when a firm is in desperate shape.
They subconsciously torpedo change ... until it's too late.
Extraordinary
bosses see change as an
inevitable part of life. While they don't value change for its own sake, they
know that success is only possible if employees and organization embrace new
ideas and new ways of doing business.
7. Technology
offers empowerment, not automation.
Average bosses adhere to the old IT-centric view that
technology is primarily a way to strengthen management control and increase
predictability. They install centralized computer systems that dehumanize and
antagonize employees.
Extraordinary
bosses see technology as
a way to free human beings to be creative and to build better relationships.
They adapt their back-office systems to the tools, like smartphones and
tablets, that people actually want to use.
8. Work should
be fun, not mere toil.
Average bosses buy into the notion that work is, at
best, a necessary evil. They fully expect employees to resent having to work,
and therefore tend to subconsciously define themselves as oppressors and their
employees as victims. Everyone then behaves accordingly.
Extraordinary
bosses see work as
something that should be inherently enjoyable–and believe therefore that the
most important job of manager is, as far as possible, to put people in jobs
that can and will make them truly happy.
