The Best Boss

The Best Boss

Some years ago, in an exit interview, an employee who was leaving for a better opportunity told me I was the best boss he had ever had. I had heard that before in my career, and early on it was probably for the wrong reasons: I was easy, I wanted to be liked, and being liked was cheaper than being respected.

This time he gave reasons. I had his back. I challenged him and gave him opportunities. I was fair, honest, and open with him. So I sat with it, and I thought about my own boss at the time, who was the best I had ever worked for. He gave me a voice, trusted me, and pushed me to grow.

That is when the thought landed that has stayed with me since. The point is not that one manager gets a compliment. It is what a company looks like when everyone in it, all the way down the line, could say the same thing about the person they report to.

What it is not

Being the best boss is not being liked. It is not making the job easy, or overlooking mistakes so nobody’s feelings get hurt, or putting a rosy spin on a bad quarter. People see through all of that, and they do not respect it.

What it is

Trust and candor. Clear expectations, stated once and held. Honest feedback, including the hard conversation nobody is naturally good at. Coaching. Healthy conflict. Opportunities that stretch people, and the honesty to name a wrong fit when it is one.

Most of that list is not personality. It is the environment a manager builds around the people who report to him. Do they know who owns what. Is the method written down. Do they have what the job takes. Do they get the numbers in time. Do their ideas reach a decision. Were they prepared for the job they have now. Those are the 7 conditions I score in every company I work with, and a manager who scores well on them is most of the way to best boss without trying to be anyone’s friend.

Why it cascades

Here is the part that makes it a business question rather than a nice sentiment. People manage the way they were managed. A supervisor who was given a title and nothing else gives his people a title and nothing else. A manager who was trusted, challenged, and told the truth does the same for his team, and so on down.

That means the owner’s standard is the company’s standard. Whatever the person at the top models gets copied 3 levels down, for better or worse, whether anyone intends it or not.

So the question for anyone with people reporting to them is simple. Are you their best boss? If not, why not, and what would have to change? The answer is usually one or two of the conditions above, and they are all within your authority to fix.

I have been the wrong kind of best boss and the right kind, and the difference was never charm. If you want an honest read on the environment you have built for your managers, my door is open.