What Makes a Great Boss?

Now that I am at the end of my work life I have been pondering this question in deep earnest. I have worked for forty years in all sorts of venues across the entire world. As such, I am relying on my personal thoughts and observations as I postulate on this subject.

As a fun exercise I decided to take an inventory of all the bosses I have had in my long career. And to my surprise I realized I have had over twenty nine different bosses. They all had different personalities, temperaments and leadership styles.

There has been an endless amount of work done in academic circles and much has been written about what makes a good leader - a great boss. College classes and seminars about leadership abound. Professional training organizations are constantly inundating us with a bewildering array of seminars and training programs. All of them profess to teach us to be great bosses. Among academic pundits there is a plethora of theories and opinions as to what are the characteristics of effective leaders. Organization Development experts all promise to make each of us great bosses and leaders. Leadership skills are judged, assessed and decried. There are even high priced leadership coaches all eager to make us the greatest of bosses.

As a tour de force I decided to do an analysis from a very personal point of view. I do have a good sample of my own bosses to draw conclusions as to what characteristics make a great boss, at least from my viewpoint as a subordinate. Let me tell you that among all the twenty nine bosses that I had the opportunity to work for, only one of them stand out much taller than the rest. So in this piece, I plan to elaborate on the characteristics that made this one boss stand way out among the rest.

First of all, let me tell you some of the descriptive characteristics of this person. He was a professional in finance by background, but he was not an accounting type. He had a MBA from a very ordinary school - Wayne State University (he did not need an Ivy league education to be successful). He was the CFO of a major corporation. He worked at General Motors for many years and actually thats where he got started. He guided the company where we worked to unbelievable success. The company he guided along with its CEO, went from zero revenue to $500 million in revenue in less than five years. We hired a lot of people into the company. He raised large sums of money for the company. During his tenure the company went public. Everybody who worked for him gave him an A+ as a boss. This was not the only company he worked for. A lot of people who worked for him in various companies formed a networking group, which met regularly, the sole connecting factor was that all members of the network had worked for this person sometime or the other.

So what made this boss so good. Upon contemplation I have determined the defining characteristics. Here they are:

1. He was humble, never talked about his achievements publicly.

2. He was quiet. He did not say much. He listened.

3. He chose the "right" team and he encouraged all who worked for him in a very quiet unassuming way.

4. He had no show business surrounding him. He was not pompous and boastful in any way. He did not need PR support.

5. He was a very clever resource manager. He did not swing at the extremes. Spend a lot at one moment and then clamp down to nothing at the next moment. There were no wild gyrations with him.

6. He was strategic. He discussed and explained to his staff the strategic vision, purpose, objectives and goals and then he completely let his staff execute. At the execution stage he did not interfere at all. He had a very simple follow-up process with which he kept track of what his staff was up to, i.e. whether they were achieving their goals and action plans i.e. whether they were doing what they were supposed to.

7. He had no favorites among his staff. He gave all equal time and attention.

8. He regularly had staff meetings with the entire team present. But none of his meetings were long drawn out sessions. They were brief and to the point. He did not watch the clock.

9. He was keenly aware of the need for staff development. He always encouraged his staff to develop themselves.

10. He created a real team effort among his staff and lead the team spirit and culture in the company.

11. He was the glue that kept the executive team of this company very close together at work and even on social occasions.

12. He encouraged creativity. If any of his staff suggested a new creative solution, he would encourage that creative spirit.

13. He was fundamentally empathetic to the concerns of others. He listened actively.

14. He generously rewarded employee contribution.

14. He is the only boss my wife of thirty-eight years still talks about.

This list should be sufficient at this stage. I think my listing them gives a very clear picture of what characteristics make a great boss. To have all these characteristics in one person is rare. This boss of mine was truly unique. And I feel privileged to have had him as my boss. And he does stand out among the rest. I guess to have had one great boss in my long career is really a blessing. Because as Lee Iacocca says, "Where have all the leaders gone?".