On Internet Business

What bosses believe and why it matters

Posted by Michael under Business Growth, Leadership

Robert Sutton has been pondering what bosses believe at the Harvard Business Review, and he’s produced some thought-provoking articles that explore what a good boss does, and doesn’t, do. Here’s a digest of his research:

• He or she recognises that he or she has an imperfect understanding of how he is to work for, and that the way he or she does things is as important as the things he or she does. He or she also knows that his or her power over others can lead to imposing harsh behaviour on staff that he or she isn’t even aware of. Finding the balance between asserting ‘boss behaviour’ and less assertive behaviour is one of the key skills of a good boss.
• A good boss, according to Sutton, knows that it’s getting the boring everyday things right that leads to success, even if the media only focuses on success that comes through ‘breakthrough ideas’ or weird magical methods. Similarly, little wins are the key focus, as they allow the team to see progress every day – big ambitious goals are important but not a daily concern.
• Protecting staff from outside annoyances is one of the responsibilities of the good boss, as is knowing when he or she is going wrong and pulling themselves back from overconfidence that leads to a business nose-dive.
• Leadership tests are common, and one of the most important to the good boss is what happens in a business after somebody makes a mistake. Another crucial leadership test is the process that a boss goes through to destroy bad ideas, and to eliminate the many good ones that aren’t key to business success – in other words, in Sutton’s own language: bad is stronger than good. It is more important to eliminate the negative than to accentuate the positive.
• Perhaps one of the most interesting phrases he uses about the ‘good boss’ is “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” which is a fascinating concept, although it’s not clear how Sutton thinks fighting and listening come together in good leadership (perhaps he’s saving that for his book, due out in September).

Goals and why good bosses may ignore them

And he’s dug deeper into the topic in exploring Big Hairy Audacious Goals, those management objectives made famous by Jim Collins, which many managers believe are the only measure, and means, to business success. Sutton dares to argue otherwise, suggesting that while ambitious goal-setting is a key feature of effective leadership, the best bosses don’t use the BHAG as a daily tool because:

1. The goals are too obvious to need restatement (there’s no need to explore the big goal, but the subgoals along the way are worth assessing for clarity and commitment)
2. As a weapon they’re pretty blunt (BHAGs don’t allow daily successes, while breaking them down into the little steps along the way can let a team celebrate mini-successes on a regular basis as they move towards the big goal)
3. As a target they’re too big (it’s scary to be told to double your sales, for example, but breaking down that process into steps and talking it through removes fear and replaces it with a coherent outline to follow).

And I’d add a final thought from my own experience: I am accountable and responsible for the success and failure of my people. If someone in my team doesn’t achieve their objectives, more often than not it turns out they weren’t adequately set up to succeed.

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