eHA_Admin_Lori is offline eHA_Admin_Lori — Advice Official Moderator Post #1  July 31,2009, 5:24pm
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Are you a good boss, or do you have a good boss?

What do you think makes for a good boss?

~~~

I have a great boss, I have been pretty lucky throughout my career to (almost) exclusively work for good, fair people.

At eHarmony I am a boss for the first time, and I *like* to think I am a good one

I think a good boss is one that understands the reality of situations but still holds you accountable, and stands up for you when it's needed. Among other things that I will think of and post later
 
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singinggirl is offline singinggirl Post #2  August 1,2009, 7:30pm
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I think a good boss is one that understands the reality of situations but still holds you accountable, and stands up for you when it's needed.

I think that's a great definition of a good boss, Lori.

There has been some transition in my company lately and I'm about to get a new boss on Monday. I don't personally know him, but have heard good things. Still, I'm a bit concerned about how things will go since he's about 10-15 years younger than me. Wish me luck!
 
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pamcam is offline pamcam Post #3  August 1,2009, 8:14pm
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My boss of 5 years, whom I respected and admired, retired in June. What made him a good boss was he was human. He was open-minded, considered others' perspectives, and didn't lose sight of what really matters. He listens and is patient. Mostly, I think what made him a boss was that he really enjoyed his job. It was a pleasure and a lot of fun to work with and for him. He was supportive personally and professionally, and he had strong interpersonal/relational skills. He could admit when he made mistakes and forgive us ours.

That this was his 3rd career also spoke volumes as to his varied life experience he brought w/ him. While he knew his job and knew it well, that's a different skills set...it was how he related to others and his humor that was so refreshing.

Somehow, I've always been really blessed to work w/ wonderful people and bosses.
Last edited by pamcam; August 1,2009 at 8:26pm.
 
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brneyedangel is offline brneyedangel — Advice Member-Moderator Post #4  August 4,2009, 1:54pm
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I consider myself to be very fortunate to have a good boss. He's extremely fair, he has a good head on his shoulders, he supports his staff, and he's always looking out for what's in the best interest of our students. He also doesn't take himself too seriously, has a great way of easing tensions with humor, and genuinely cares about us as people.

He also went to bat for myself and another English teacher (who I have seniority over) this year and managed to keep us both on staff full time by giving me the opportunity to use my master's (curriculum specialist) in a way that is beneficial to the students and staff. They are doing away with full time academics at the vocational school I teach at, and they are slowly integrating most of the academic staff into the vocational programs to allow students to pick up credits needed for graduation. I have to tell you, I'm thrilled at this opportunity (English doesn't integrate into these programs very well), and I'm so happy for the other instructor, as well--the idea of bumping him out of his job so I could keep mine was not one I relished, as he has a family and English teaching positions aren't at all plentiful in this part of the country.

So yeah, I guess you can say I have a pretty great boss.
 
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yeoww is offline yeoww Post #5  August 7,2009, 8:23pm
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eH_Advice_Admin_Lori wrote :
Are you a good boss, or do you have a good boss?

What do you think makes for a good boss?
I hope I'm a good boss (I've been told that I am). It's important to know what my division does (you'd be surprised at the number of bosses that have no idea!), provide the people that report to me with training opportunities so they can advance, and protect them from stress in these stressful times. The last one includes, if someone makes an error, taking the blame. I should be the first one in and the last one out during the workday. That's what I get paid for.

Do I have a good boss? Nope. He's been with us for about a year. As to why he's not a good boss, I refer to the first paragraph in my comment here. The boss we had before that - awesome. I still keep in touch with him, actually, to get the guidance and support no longer available on a day-to-day basis...but this too shall pass
 
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CreolePrincess is offline CreolePrincess Post #6  August 9,2009, 2:07pm
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I have tons of bosses and none of them are very good in my opinion. And here's why. I was sent to supervisory training (a seminar to teach how to supervise). Well, I learned that there was a difference between a supervisor and a leader. As supervisors, my bosses are pretty much doing what they should be. But as leaders, they fall dead flat. And to me, one can't be a good boss without providing leadership.

Let me give an example. Where I work there are deadlines that have been imposed by administrative and governing bodies. In this particular instance, there we had 14 days to get the paperwork completed. However, to get the paperwork done, we needed access to certain key people. Those key people had become upset and had decided to pull a vanishing act making it impossible to complete the work. So, my boss said that the paperwork still was due at the original deadline, because policy said we had 14 days. However, by doing so without the key people was an ethical violation, and if there was ever a lawsuit, would put professional licenses and reputations on the line, not to mention jobs. A boss providing leadership would have not encouraged staff to do the wrong thing, but would have questioned the policy wrote an explanation as to why in this particular instance there had to be made an exception. But he'd rather not rock the boat and put the professionalism of his staff at stake. And his boss backed him up on the choice. The blind leading the blind, or rather, the don't-rock-the-boat following the-don't-rock-the-boat. To me, that doesn't make a good boss.

All my bosses are that way, and that is why there is never much improvement in the job. The turnover rate is extremely high, there is always mass confusion, and problems are rarely resolved. All bosses want to supervise but no one ever wants to lead. I look at a situation, and if the traditional method doesn't work to solve it, I say try something else, something that hasn't been tried before, which is why I will likely never be promoted to be anyone's boss.
 
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meri75 is offline meri75 Post #7  August 20,2009, 4:56pm
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Well, according the evaluations of my staff, this seems to be sometimes largely dependant upon their mood at the time of filling out the evalution!

I think I'm probably like most of management - getting some things right, some things wrong ... and hopefully learning from and correcting my mistakes.

My direct manager is based inter-state, generally he is quite good. He does not micro-manage and trusts me to get on with things and ring him up when necessary.
 
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mari3434 is offline mari3434 Post #8  November 22,2009, 1:09am
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Being a "boss" has been a huge learning curve for me over the past 3 years. Indeed, it takes leadership to make a good boss more so than supervision. I can tell you, this is not a skill I learned in law school

I am still learning how to truly "lead." I do tend to own up to my mistakes and forgive my staff for their mistakes. However, I do make my staff and myself accountable. I do believe my staff respect me for that. I also have learned to treat them with compassion and support them (i.e give flowers or some other act of kindness of having a bad day). It makes a world of difference. I also never treat my staff any less than myself -I never ask them to make me coffee or do my dry cleaning. My staff are gold - and without them - my firm would sink. They "run the firm." I suppose because of this attitude, my staff have stayed with me for the last three years (no turnover). I am still learning each day
 
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PY_2 is offline PY_2 Post #9  November 30,2009, 11:51am

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eHA_Admin_Lori wrote :
I have a great boss
Does your boss happen to be checking this post?
 
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shoopthedoop is offline shoopthedoop Post #10  December 23,2009, 1:12pm
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is happy with the way things are going!

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PY_2 wrote :
Does your boss happen to be checking this post?
Probably hey.

I have the bestest boss in the whole world (just in case she is reading this board and looks at the time stamp)!
 
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