We've all had them: bosses who inspire more fury and frustration than productivity or inspiration. They bark orders, mumble vague instructions, and seem oblivious to their employees's successes, but strangely attuned to every fumble. Who hasn't spent lunch hours dissecting a supervisor's flaws and foibles, fantasizing about an early retirement or personality overhaul for their boss?
But such musings miss the real kink in office operations. According to Renato Tagiuri, Ph.D., professor emeritus of social sciences at Harvard Business School, decades of research into what makes a great manager leads to one conclusion: "It's not about personality. It's about behavior."
While self-help books expound on the power of personality, and management gurus tell us it's all about style, Tagiuri suggests that many different kinds of people make good managers. Besides, who we are is far more difficult to change than what we are.
Whether you're reserved or chatty, decisive or waffling, there are effective ways to get the best out of your workers. With the help of his students--who all had considerable work experience and had endured many bosses--Tagiuri has distilled a lifetime of inquiry into 10 essential actions that make a great boss:
o Clarify objectives of job assignments
o Describe assignments clearly
o Listen to your employees's views
o Make sure the resources necessary to carry out assignments are available
o Be explicit about evaluation standards
o Reward effort and offer incentives
o Give prompt feedback on performance
o Avoid personal friendships with employees
o Admit your errors, don't tell lies
o Make the decisions that are yours to make.
The 10 behaviors constitute a cohesive system "and the removal of any one of them will cause the structure to crumble," Tagiuri believes. Employees need to know how they'll be judged, what priorities their boss will set, and whether their earnest efforts will be noticed.
Alternatively, bosses can manage by threats or acquire enough charisma to charm employees into high gear. But both strategies ultimately backfire.