Last week, we spoke about the Great Resignation and its impact on you, a fearless leader in the middle. This week, I want us to take a step back and adjust our lens. We’re now in the employees’ shoes and my question to you is, given the choice, which boss would you choose? Is it the boss with a hands-off, you’ll figure it out yourself approach? Or is it the boss that is involved and challenges you to be better? What’s my inspiration for these questions you ask? Well, a TEDTalk on Socrates’ Questionings though that will take us on a tangent. What’s more important is given the current struggles of finding and now keeping good employees, the stark reality of these questions are more relevant than ever. Let’s get philosophical!
Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe, Pick Your Boss as You Go!
Ok, so I’ve pitched you a few questions above. Have you figured out your answer? Still ruminating? Ok, here are a few more to get your thoughts going. As a leader which boss best describes you, absentee coach or head coach? Do these two approaches match? Can they be combined? Why do people deliberately wear mismatched socks? Sigh, there I go again getting distracted.
Going back to the topic at hand and to put it quite bluntly, no they don’t match nor can they be combined. As a boss, it’s your job to make your staff better. This means we must make our employees uncomfortable from time to time. That’s how you grow, you are put in situations outside your comfort zone so you can take the necessary steps forward. That means being a head coach.
At the end of the day, we’re not solely doing this out of kindness. As LIMs, we are charged to make our organization more successful. It just so happens that a smart leader will effectively coach so the employees that we lead can get better, grow, and get promoted internally or externally.
Which Boss Should You Choose to be?
Again, going back to last week’s post, we discussed that most organizations are struggling with employee engagement because leaders are not effectively engaging their staff. We also identified two causes, disinterest (rarely) or the fear that demanding too much from staff will lead to a breakdown in the work relationship (most likely rationale). Now, if it’s the former, hint, hint, it’s time you to get a new job! If it’s the latter, then allow me to calm your mind, committing to and engaging with your employees will NOT encourage them to resign.
The leader-employee relationship holds similar parallels to the parent-child relationship. As I point out in Chapter 22 of my book, Serve Up, Coach Down,
“The power of coaching down is expecting and accepting nothing less than the best effort and results from yourself and those you lead. Too often, leaders in the middle don’t…That’s not serving anyone well, and it’s certainly not the path to a culture of accountability that innovates and achieves powerful results. That’s like being the work equivalent of those helicopter parents who try and remove all of life’s challenges and give their kids trophies for participation.”
The thing is, coaching down is not about removing obstacles. It’s about making your people bigger than their obstacles by empowering them to implement solutions that can help overcome them.
What it Means to be the Better Boss
Despite the current employee shortage, we never want to lose focus of the reality of what it takes to have a successful employer-employee relationship. While you think about improving your skills as a leader, I also don’t want you to settle. If you have an employee that doesn’t want to grow, are they even the type of employees you want? No, and you’ll also never be the boss they want or choose either. So, allow them to go find happiness elsewhere.
A bad fit is a bad fit for all sides of the business relationship. Our employees want to feel appreciated and significant; they also want to have fun and like where they work. Even more, they want to feel like they are growing and developing so they too can achieve greater personal success. So again, I ask you, which boss do you want to be? The only one you should be, the boss that is involved and challenges staff to be better.
Hey, down here! If you’ve visited me on a weekly basis, then you know that I am pro-employee engagement. Did you know I also practice what I preach? Yep, and I can help you turn the tides in your favor. Shoot me an email and let’s see how I can help your organization.
