Bob Sutton released Good Boss, Bad Boss–and supported his then new work with a Harvard Business Review series “12 Things Good Bosses Believe“. Over the rest of 2010–he explained 12 things that were important for good leaders to take into account. If you look at his own blog–you’ll see some of the items have changed. But mostly in context–not in content.
Having a leadership checklist is a great reminder on what it means to be a good boss. Here’s how I’ve viewed and used his original list:
1. I have a flawed and incomplete understanding of what it feels like to work for me.
In leadership positions, we don’t always think of the wake we leave behind, or how the crew is faring during our watch. A good captain steers toward fair weather and forewarns for foul. We usually rely only on own perception as counsel. We can’t lead everyone else like we want to be led—from within our own perception—because everyone reacts differently. You don’t know how your actions can change your people. Stop to think about it next time.
2. My success—and that of my people—depends largely on being the master of obvious and mundane things, not on magical, obscure, or breakthrough ideas or methods.
New is sexy. It’s innovative—under the assumption that only by being new can you be innovative. However, people get innovation/execution fatigue. By focusing on the exotic, we distract from the basic. People don’t want too many new things—neither at once nor over the long haul. The basics are comfortable—and battle-tested. Is your excessive innovation worth it?
Now that said–some basics are really stupid. Or an expression’s of a leader’s own insecurities. Finding the path between the mundane and the misery is a critical task good leaders don’t avoid.
3. Having ambitious and well-defined goals is important, but it is useless to think about them much or dwell on them. My job is to focus on the small wins that enable my people to make a little progress every day.
Goals are great. Big goals have big timelines, and can become stale through big inertia. They don’t show much daily advancement, but need that slow and steady progress so they can be manifested. People need to know there are major goals, but don’t need to be reminded every day. Focus on the hurdles, and the finish line will come faster.
Big goals are accomplished through small wins.
4. One of the most important, and most difficult, parts of my job is to strike the delicate balance between being too assertive and not assertive enough.
Leaders have a default stance. Some are type-A agro while others can be type-B holdbacks. That might be too simplistic—but it’s important to note the center of assertiveness is always delicate and in flux. People agree to be led, not left behind–and not rode or overpowered. They need to know you will lead when leading is needed. You can assert your professional will to get results. When you need to get assertive, make it really mean something.
5. My job is to serve as a human shield, to protect my people from external intrusions, distractions, and idiocy of every strip—and to avoid imposing my own idiocy on them as well.
The leader protects his people from the extraneous, the bureaucratic, and the inane. It starts by focusing on what is needed and what’s not needed – especially from your bosses. The less you distract, the more people can do. At the same time, we can be drawn towards our own internal circle of idiocy. We are protectors of our teams from outside—and sometimes from ourselves.
6. I strive to be confident enough to convince people that I am in charge, but humble enough to realize that I am often going to be wrong.
If you’re not confident enough in your own ability, no one else will believe in you. You must be willing to adapt from your successes. You must also be willing to fail—to be aware of what you could lose. But don’t dwell on it. You must also accept not being fully sure what will happen. The problem with old decisions is they are sunk costs—instead of ingraining old decisions, set aside time to disconfirm your own beliefs and actions. Prove you are right–and prove you are wrong.
7. I aim to fight as if I am right, and listen as if I am wrong—and to teach my people to do the same thing.
Conviction and conversation work together. Memetics and beliefs survive when they are vigorously defended and instantly adapted in the face of better evidence. You and your people should hold the same beliefs and values as important. Lax beliefs and half-hearted action lead to nothing, and drive no one to achieve more. To be able to execute and pivot is a hallmark of leadership maturity.
8. One of the best tests of my leadership—and my organization—is “what happens after people make a mistake”
Mistakes will happen—we need to provide an environment where people feel safe to be allowed to make them. We have to mess up to get better. Sometimes, we get better only after we’ve made our choices. Do you inspire others to make mistakes worth learning from, or enshrine an aversion to being wrong? Is there a fault? If so, where do we place it? Watch how you handle mistakes, else you become one yourself.
9. Innovation is crucial to every team and organization. So my job is to encourage my people to generate and test all kinds of new ideas. But it is also my job to help them kill off all the bad ideas we generate, and most of the good ideas, too.
While we know basic is reliable (point #2), there is always a place for new ideas. Innovation fatigue comes from having both too many choices and too many starts. The best succeed by focusing on the few. We have to be willing to sacrifice even the really good decisions and focus on only the best decisions. People may fall in love with those ‘good’ ideas, but they must be cleaved to truly choose the best of all choices.
10. Bad is stronger than good. It is more important to eliminate the negative than to accentuate the positive.
Fear has more followers than fortune. We stay in bad jobs, bad homes, and bad mindsets because they reinforce that fear. We disempower ourselves through fear, by focusing on failure. Our people need for the bad to occupy a smaller frame than the good; else they will be steered by the stern.
11. How I do things is as important as what I do.
Matters of style are as important as matters at hand. How your team accomplishes its tasks sets the pace for subsequent success. It’s not an either/or distinction—it’s both. And that doesn’t mean the how should look effortless. Finessing over the how drives truer focus on the what—they complement each other.
12. Because I wield power over others, I am at great risk of unknowingly acting like an insensitive jerk.
Those with power can be socially contracted to a lonesome, unenviable position. We have a vision and perspective we expect others to follow. At times, our distinguishing between the trivial and the important can inadvertently offend others. Be careful in how you lead your team–you’ll probably affect entrenched people, mindsets, & habits. There is a constructive way to do that–and there’s a callous way to do that. Both will have effects you can’t measure yet.