Ask Andi: Being a better boss isn’t easy. The older I get, the more frustrated I become. When things come up, there’s an unwillingness on my part to address the seriousness of the issues at hand. What to do?
Thoughts of the Day: Being a better boss means inspiring others to give their best performance. Anyone can boss others around. But it takes true skill to inspire. Leadership skills are people skills. Along with ownership come certain responsibilities. When you don’t want to deal with something, delegate. Layout a standard way to handle issues, and learn to follow the path you’ve laid out. Give yourself time off.
Being a better boss
Business owners have more than one job. The obvious job is selling, making, and delivering the sausage – the goods or services of the business. The job behind the job is all about what it takes to keep the business on track and productive. That’s where dealing with underlying issues and challenges comes into play.
Spend time defining your job at the top of the organization. Include in your job description: goal setting, regular review of the company’s overall performance, looking forward to identifying new opportunities and ways of doing things, securing the company’s assets, and building additional ones for the future. Keep your focus on the big tasks that drive your company forward. Handoff the rest so the company can grow.
Go through your daily routine and identify tasks that get in the way of doing your job as CEO. Are you too deep into details? Assign responsibilities to others. Is there no one to delegate to? Train or replace. Do you get distracted or interrupted? Schedule your time in blocks to help you stay on point.
Set up meetings where you ask people to take action and report back on results. Coach them on what they could do next. Stay out of the mix personally.
Become a leader
Learn to step back and wait it out. Challenge the people around you to deal with more glitches on their own. Remember that a dozen people working to solve problems are likely to accomplish more than you can by controlling all the decisions and actions.
Trying to push forward without perspective can be unproductive. Few problems have to be resolved as quickly as you might think they do. It may be that your desire to delay is actually a helpful trait that gives you time to observe, reflect and decide. Take a look at why you’re delaying. Is it avoidance? Or are you simply giving the situation time to play out?
Find someone you can talk with who is level-headed, observes accurately, and helps you sort through options. If you’re alone at the top of the organization find an employee who fills the role of confidant. Have someone who can help you keep things in proportion.
Focus your efforts on becoming a problem diagnostician. There are lots of reasons why things don’t go right in a business. And often the obvious signs are just symptoms covering over bigger issues.
Improve leadership skills
Set up a system to identify and assess problems. List issues on a whiteboard. Map out the obstacles that contribute to, or result from, the problems. Document lessons learned as people deal with the issues that crop up.
Look for common threads. Check-in with owners of similar businesses to see if they’re having the same kinds of problems and to find out how they’ve put issues to bed. When issues crop up persistently consider hiring outside expertise to get another view on how to put things back on track.
Ask employees for their advice on how they would solve persistent problems. Get them engaged in the debate and resolution of issues. Teach them to be problem solvers.
When the business goes through a challenging period it’s common to feel a sense of frustration, of burnout, or avoidance. If you feel overwhelmed, give yourself a break. Getaway, even for a long weekend. Let others take care of things for you while you take time out to recharge your batteries.
Looking for a good book?
The One Minute Manager Meets The Monkey, by Ken Blanchard.
