18 Executives Share Their
Secrets to Being a Great Boss
By Emma Hart
You’ve probably heard
people say, “people don’t
quit their job, they quit
their bosses” and they’re
not wrong. Poorly managed
and executed leadership
can make all the
difference between an
employee looking forward to going to work, or viewing their
workplace as an undesirable place of doom. Poor management can
have a really damaging effect on employee morale, motivation,
and performance and can subsequently create an environment
full of unhappy campers.
So what are the qualities, habits, and processes which make a
truly great boss? And do natural born leaders have these
characteristics ingrained in their DNA, or can these be
developed through experience and learning over years of
managing? We’ve asked 18 executives from a variety of
companies to share their secrets.
If you want some super practical tips on how you can develop
your leadership and be a great boss, check out our free
eBook. Download our “How to Be a Super Boss” eBook to inspire
the best in your employees.
1. Be Human
“A few things that helped me build a great relationship with
my staff was to be genuine and transparent. Don’t lead people
on, and be clear with your requests and demands. Just because
you’re the boss, doesn’t mean you’re better in any way. Allow
your people to help you become great. Stay grounded and keep
your ego under control and help them become great as well.
Encourage free thought and creativity. Listen to all
suggestions and again, put your ego aside.”
— Michael Senderovich, President at Zeyger Insurance
2. Practice Empathy
“If you place yourself in your employees’ shoes and create a
working environment that you would love to be in, chances are
you will be an amazing boss. Literally, close your eyes and
dream up your dream job and try and create that scenario as
often as you can, and you will have highly engaged happy
people running your organization.”
— Hajmil (Haj) Carr, CEO of Trueline Publishing
3. Listen and Act on Employee Feedback
“I love to listen to my employee’s feedback and to integrate
it into how we run the business. I believe that my team
members are my best connection to our customers and I value
them beyond measure. I also value my team as individuals. I
care about their lives and I spend time with them. I believe
that this gives me a connection to them and them a connection
to me that is beyond ‘just business’. I believe that it is my
team that has made our business what it is and I express that
with a lot of gratitude!”
— Deborah Sweeney, CEO of My Corporation
4. Be Consistent
“I’ve worked in both multinational and SME companies and there
is nothing more frustrating than a leader that doesn’t show
consistency. This applies to both their working style and
promises. There is nothing more demoralizing for an employee
than being promised something and the company not delivering.
One company that I worked for was changing brands and senior
management promised an update every week on the process. There
were no further updates and moral tanked.”
— Tom Sadler, Sales and Marketing Director at Indago Digital
5. Challenge Your Employees
“A great boss inspires and empowers their team to take
initiative, challenges existing ways of thinking and accepts
greater responsibility. Things like active listening, regular
check-ins and creating a psychologically safe place for team
members to share their ideas are all qualities that make for
happy and engaged employees. When you create a workplace where
people love to be, you can effectively manufacture happiness.”
— Logan Merrick, CEO of Buzinga Apps
6. Communicate Clearly
“Being a great boss involves clear communication based on
three things: What did we accomplish from the last meeting?
What are we currently working to accomplish? Are there any
obstacles to our current goals? As a boss, my role is to
remove obstacles to the success of my team. I am invested in
their success, and this naturally makes for a great
relationship between boss and employee.”
— Alani Kuye, CEO at pHlatbed Inc.
7. Recognition
Positive affirmation is a basic human need.
We crave positive feedback for our effects and glow when
they’re recognized. From a managerial perspective, financial
rewards are a great way to appreciate efforts, but it’s more
of a short term objective rather than coming from a warm fuzzy
place of real authentic recognition. An effective approach
when recognizing an employee’s hard work is to catch it in the
moment. Be specific when you’re thanking them and always
relate it back to the bigger picture. “Recognition is more
effective when it’s given in the context of a business-
results-focused activity”
— Meghan M. Biro, Forbes
“The key to being a great boss is acknowledging employees
strengths, and not creating constant competition between
employees. When staff members feel appreciated they will
always produce great work. As a business owner, I demand my
management to do weekly evaluations with staff. If your
employees are not happy with work conditions you can expect
your company to fail.”
— Michelle Hunter, Owner at SBH Media and Music
8. Create an Open Sharing Space
“I think it’s important to establish a strong relationship
based on trust and respect with your employees. I tend to make
my employees feel like my equal without losing the balance of
power to gain respect and authority. I want everyone to feel
comfortable addressing things with me and coming to me with
issues. I like having an open forum for people to talk and
resolve conflicts. It’s common that individuals will have
varying opinions, but it’s important to address those feelings
and to also make them feel safe and comfortable.”
— Amy Medeiros, Marketing Manager at Broadband Search
It can be difficult to break out of the leader-follower
mindset at the workplace, and research has found that “only
rare, ‘transformational leaders’ are able to prevent employees
from being excessively reliant on their bosses” (Drew
Hendricks, Forbes). Cultivating staff that feels empowered and
self-guided can be challenging.
The cornerstones in building a culture that allows empowerment
comes from building trust and cultivating the executive
mentality.
Chances are, most of your employees aren’t thinking at an
executive level as they’re focused on their own tasks. Being
transparent in helping them understand the bigger picture and
goals you’re driving them toward empowers them to enter the
executive mindset.
9. Provide Freedom
“I think the secret to being a good boss is empowering your
workers. If you’re constantly looking over their shoulder
micromanaging, they’ll always be scared of messing up. They’re
going to do just enough to get by, scared to even think about
going the extra mile. All their time will be focused on not
getting in trouble as opposed to excelling. Give your workers
a longer leash, so to speak. Set expectations and trust them
to meet them. You’ll be surprised how a little freedom will
increase performance.”
— Eric Brantner, Founder of Scribblrs
10. Avoid Micro-Managing
Studies have shown that true personal satisfaction comes from
self-chosen goals which is the kind of motivation employers
should encourage toward their staff. This intrinsic motivation
harbours creativity and a deeper understanding of the task at
hand. “It turns out that it isn’t so much actual freedom of
choice that matters when creating intrinsic motivation but the
feeling of choice” (Heidi Grant Halvorson, Forbes). Micro-
managing eliminates employees deciding how they will reach the
goal and removes the feeling of choice necessary to feel
intrinsically motivated.
Monitoring their every move actually ends up impeding their
ability to grow.
“I don’t micro-manage. I give my employees tasks and then
trust them to carry them out. This empowers them. I will hold
them accountable when needed, otherwise, if they are getting
the work done, it’s fine with me.”
— Amir Watynski, Owner at Watt Media
11. Communicate with Every Employee
“A CEO blog, that you write yourself, is an effective method
of communicating strategy and progress. When you visit other
regions or departments, use your blog to highlight what you
observed and discovered with insights on the people you met
and the great work they are doing. Employee engagement should
be personal and public. In larger organizations, you can’t
meet everyone one on one but you can talk publicly of those
you have. Their co-workers will know who they are and by
extension will feel personally valued too.”
— Maria Bellissimo-Magrin, Founder at Belgrin
12. Know Your People
As a manager, before you start changing processes or
implementing new efficiencies, it’s crucial you spend some
time getting to know who your people are. There’s no point
introducing new procedures if you don’t know how the
stakeholders operate.
Not knowing your employees is like buying a piece of furniture
from Ikea and throwing out the blueprint.
You need to understand how they work before putting the
strategy together. Find out what makes them tick and what
truly motivates them. Getting to know employees on both a
professional and personal level will have a much more positive
effect on your relationship.
“Make a point of meeting with each person one-on-one every
week for an hour. Use that time to catch up on work matters,
but also personal details. Ask about their soccer games and
things that matter to staff members. Be sure to use it as a
sharing and coaching time rather than a status check. These
meetings can be valuable places to collaborate for better
outcomes, and head off any problems before they arise. When
the team is virtual, use Skype Facetime, or Jobvibe to build a
sense of connection.”
— Jean Marrapodi, Chief Learning Architect at Applestar
Productions
13. Foster an Inclusive Culture
“A basic desire of practically every person in this world is
to feel important. In the workplace, employees want to do
meaningful work that contributes to the greater good of the
company. Therefore, creating and maintaining a culture where
the sharing of ideas is not just accepted, but encouraged,
should be a top priority for any leader.
Gone are the days of the omniscient, omnipotent CEO who makes
all significant decisions independently.
Rather, contemporary organizations that foster a supportive,
collaborative culture and value the ideas that a diverse
workforce can offer achieve greater levels of success and
sustainability than their rivals.”
— Scott Sette, Partner at DHR International
14. Personalize Your Mentoring
“Often I see managers train and mentor every employee in the
same cookie-cutter fashion while then holding employees to
different levels of expectations based on the employee’s
personality or communication skills. I like to flip that
thinking and hold every employee to the same standards but
personalize how I mentor and train based on how I have learned
each of them best receives and digests feedback from others.
It allows me to remain fair in holding the same standards for
each of my employees but still be cognizant that each person
learns and communicates in their own way.”
— Christine Rochelle, Director of Digital Marketing and
Operations at Lotus823
15. Be Flexible
“Being a great boss is like an elastic band. When the team is
under high stress and pressure, your job is to hold everything
together. Like the elastic band other times your role is to
stretch, stretch the team. Allowing the team to experiment and
try new approaches. Finally, like an elastic a good boss snaps
their team back to reality when needed. This could mean
snapping back to the bigger picture or the task at hand.”
— Nicholas Klisht, Director at Coverticulture
16. Celebrate Work Anniversaries
“Setting up alerts will allow you to (at the very least)
acknowledge their contribution to the team in an email or
card, or perhaps a small gift. I’ve set mine for 10 days prior
to each team member’s actual anniversary date.”
— Emma Still, Team Leader at Seer Interactive
17. Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff
“My mantra as a business owner has always been to avoid
sweating the small stuff and to move forward in a positive
direction. A positive work environment is essential to your
success and longevity as a business. If you create a positive
office dynamic, this will enable you to attract and retain top
talent, allowing your business to thrive. When your employees
are happier, they do better work, and this leads to happy
clients, which is the crucial key to any successful business.”
— Brock Murray, Co-Founder at seoplus+
18. Be honest
“There’s nothing worse than beating around the bush when
something is wrong or being wishy-washy if something is going
right. A good boss can always be honest with their staff as to
their performance so that they can continuously improve their
weaknesses and leverage their strengths. So when things don’t
go well, have a frank discussion as to how it can be avoided
in the future. And when things are awesome, celebrate the
individual and team achievement. If you’re honest in good
times and in bad, everyone will know exactly where they stand.
This eliminates anxiety for you and for your staff.”
— Magda Walczak, CCO at Search Party
Author Bio: Emma Hart
Emma coordinates and creates content for Search
Party and Job Advisor’s marketing activities.
Originally from the UK, Emma studied Marketing
Management in Newcastle and has a real passion for
researching new trends and discovering exciting
developments to share with the world.
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