Corporate America has a longstanding tradition of bosses wanting to look infallible, and staff not wanting to risk the bosses ire by pointing out mistakes.

And it’s a damned costly shame.  It doesn’t serve the boss, the staff, or the bottom line.

Your staff knows that they’re supposed to help you meet your goals.  Let them also know that you want to help them do their jobs well, and to make that happen, they need to help you be the best boss you can be.

Get their input.  Ask them to tell you when you’re not being clear, or when you seem to be doing something that doesn’t make sense, or when they need your time and attention to accomplish whatever mission you’ve given them.

And guess what — this isn’t just about managing ADD.  It’s about being a good boss all around.

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For one broader exploration of this theme, check out What is Servant-Leadership? at the Greenleaf Center for Servant-Leadership.

Also see "Managing your Boss"  in the Harvard Business Review January-February 1990.  This article, by John Gabarro and John Kotter, was considered groundbreaking when it came out just seventeen years ago.  We still have a lot of "old thinking" DNA about the boss-as-infallible.  A whole lot of not-very-useful DNA.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 15th, 2007 at 6:38 pm and is filed under Organizations and Links, Office Affirmations -- Thought for the Day. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.