- Only 11 percent of workers who rated their boss’s performance “excellent” – which means they liked and respected their boss – were likely to look for a new job in the next year, but
- 40 percent of those who rated their boss’s performance “poor” said they were likely to jump ship.
As the Gallup Organization says, "People join organizations but they leave their bosses."
Subordinates have always known they had to earn their boss’s respect and it was important for the boss to like them. The new wrinkle is, bosses have to earn the respect and liking of the people they lead and manage.
When asked what their job is, most managers say, “It’s to hit the numbers.” That’s true. But the only way to reach the unit’s goals is through the performance of every subordinate. Thus the manager’s real job is to manage subordinates, to lead, teach, model and involve the people who report to him or her. It’s all about relationships.
The best relationships between bosses and subordinates involve mutual and reciprocal trust and respect akin to that between a teacher and an able student. These relationships can be friendly, but they’re not friendships in the usual sense of the word. Friends don't judge each other, but a boss must make judgments about performance and abilities.
Good relationships are always based on trust because in the absence of trust, there is mistrust and a real relationship is impossible. Gaining trust requires genuine communication. A great manager needs to be true to their word, and ensure that communication is both comfortable and basically honest.
Machiavelli is not a good role model for managers.
Managers can enable employees to feel they and their work matter if they talk with each employee as an individual, as a person who might need, for example, different kinds of recognition, or different working arrangements or a different career path. When managers engage these issues with employees and really listen to what the employee is saying, they have made a difference in how positively the employee feels about themselves – and the organization and their boss.
Gifted managers communicate their belief that each individual is important, that much is expected from each, that everyone can master new tasks and earn significant recognition and many can become leaders.
Most of the time, these optimistic beliefs are self-fulfilling…
