Tag Archives: boss

Glamour Boss

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Young leaders can be guilty of spending more than a fair amount of time critiquing the boss. In the process, each of us have taken the things we like least about our current or past employers and created a fictional ‘glamour boss’ in our minds. This new boss, who now qualifies to grace the the covers of GQ, Fast Company, Psychology Today and Philanthropy.com all in the same month, is not human. She is made of the stuff that can only be concocted by drinking from the wrong workplace water cooler. Reset your expectations for this world.

Research Character – Before you work for or under anyone, take the time to ascertain fundamental nature and character of your new guide. Know which are the essential qualities of a leader that matter most to you. A job interview is a two-way street so do your own reference checking. Have confidence in the character of the individual that you are going to allow to lead you.

Concentrate on Core - Every leader has their core strengths. When you focus on their gifts, you have the opportunity to see their best and most remarkable qualities and contributions. Seek to learn from a leader’s area of expertise. Fault finding is a pastime that too many have become experts at.

Expect Less – Sounds weird I know. Do a personal inventory. In your frustration, write down every single thing that you expect from your boss. I mean it… write it all down. Now, if your list of reasonable expectations for your leader has grown beyond 2-3 major items (example = clearly defined path of what success looks like in your environment) I want to let you know that you are needy and your expectations are probably unreasonable.

essential deliveries

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Integrating into an new environment can be challenging. Unless you are working at Burger King, I think it will take you at least 3 months to start to get your bearings about how things work, what is expected of you and how to deliver what ‘they’ are looking for. Even then, it will take you 3-9 months more to really get some great traction. Problem = employers are often impatient. In their heads they are thinking,

 ”I am paying you. You should be making my life easier and getting more things done.”

You need to figure out what the MOST important things are that you were hired to accomplish. Typically there are 3 priorities for leadership type of roles for which every boss holds expectations.

Priority 1 = “more than anything, I am counting on your for _______.” (You need to deliver ‘A’ quality work in this area; if you aren’t near an ‘A’ in the first 30-60 days, you can probably kiss the job good-bye if you are in a competitive environment.)

Priority 2 = “you also need to deliver this ________.” (You will be be allowed to deliver ‘C’ quality work in this area at first, but a minimum of ‘B’ quality work will become the expectation in the first year.)

Priority 3 = “here are some misc. items that I would like you take take responsibility for.” (The quality of your personal work in these areas isn’t often as important as the fact that you take responsibility for them and are conscientious that they need to get done within some reasonable timeline.)

HERE IS THE PROBLEM / CHALLENGE —>

MANY young leaders don’t discern quickly enough what these priorities are from their boss, which order they go in and also what ‘A’, ‘B’, or ‘C’ work looks like according to their boss. They ‘why this happens’ is various and relatively not important.

You need to do at least 2 things in your new role. 1. = ASK your boss directly what the priorities are and what success looks like in each area. 2. = pay CLOSE ATTENTION to the signals and signs in your environment to be sure the verbal &/or written priorities are actually the REAL priorities. CLUE = sometimes they are NOT the same.