Take The Quiz

If employee turnover and absenteeism within the company are too high, and productivity and morale too low, the person in charge may be the one at fault.To find out how good or bad — a boss you are, the National Federation of Independent Business, a small business advocacy group, suggests asking yourself these questions:

1. Have you ever publicly criticized an employee?

2. Do you take credit for your employees’ work?

3. Do your employees fear you?

4. Do you expect employees to do what you tell them without question?

5. Do you believe employees should know what to do without you telling them or providing guidelines?

6. Are you a yeller?

7. Do you demean employees as a form of punishment?

8. Do you play favorites?

9. Do you hate delegating?

10. Do you check everyone’s work?

According to the answer key, the more “yes” answers, the greater the likelihood you are a bad boss. Author Trevor Gay has come up with a basic list of the differences between good and bad bosses. In his 35 years of work (in the health care industry), Mr. Gay said he discovered that his best bosses had these attributes:

• Inspired confidence
• Were humble
• Had integrity
• Knew what they were talking about
• Let me get on with things
• Were always there when I needed help
• Usually said, ‘Yes, try it.’”

His worst bosses had these deficiencies:

• Never seemed to be around when I needed them
• Always asked me to justify what I wanted to do
• Always wanted to know what I was doing
• Often said ‘no, we can’t do that’
• Gave the impression of being distrustful
• Didn’t smile much
• Talked about themselves a lot.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 17th, 2008 at 6:43 pm and is filed under Business, Entrepreneurs, My Life At Work, Self-Improvement, Studies and Surveys. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.