12 Management Skills All Great Bosses Must Have

by Rachel Miller

What is the def­i­n­i­tion of a great boss?

As a rule, great bosses are excel­lent com­mu­ni­ca­tors. They use ver­bal and body lan­guage to moti­vate, edu­cate and inspire. But what else qual­i­fies some­one as a great boss? I sat down and recalled all of the bosses I have ever had. The good, the bad and the kind that still show up in my night­mares. The list below out­lines man­age­ment skills all great bosses should have.

1. Look into My Eyes. Mak­ing eye con­tact is an under-rated com­mu­ni­ca­tion skill. Even if your iPhone is sur­gi­cally attached to your hand, take your eyes off the screen, and really con­nect with your employee. While you might be lis­ten­ing closely, if you are not mak­ing eye con­tact with the per­son speak­ing, you appear to be dis­tracted or unin­ter­ested. Both have extremely neg­a­tive effects on employee morale. Eye con­tact sends a mes­sage to the employee that he or she has your full atten­tion and is important.

2. Small Things Mat­ter. Remem­ber names of your employ­ees’ spouse, chil­dren, life part­ner, pets, etc. Know­ing the dif­fer­ence between Fluffy and Fido will score you many points. It is well known that employ­ees feel moti­vated and spe­cial when a higher up remem­bers their name. Remem­ber­ing not only your employ­ees’ names (not always easy to do if you work for a large orga­ni­za­tion) but some­thing spe­cific to their per­sonal lives will win your employ­ees’ respect and inspire them to per­form better.

3. Even the Play­ing Field. Share funny or embar­rass­ing work sto­ries with your staff. Using humor in con­ver­sa­tions is a great way to build rap­port with employ­ees and can also relieve ten­sion to make the work envi­ron­ment more relaxed. Also, laugh­ing at your mis­takes is a great way to open the lines of com­mu­ni­ca­tion and encour­age staff to share their work suc­cess and fail­ures. Con­ver­sa­tions like these often lead to con­struc­tive process brainstorming.

4. Tell It Like It Is. Cor­rect­ing is one of the most impor­tant parts of being a great boss. When offer­ing feed­back to employ­ees, espe­cially when giv­ing con­struc­tive crit­i­cism, focus on the facts. Clearly point out the incor­rect behav­ior, explain the effect of the incor­rect behav­ior, and clearly state what you expect the employee to do dif­fer­ently next time. Do not add unnec­es­sary emo­tion or exam­ples of past incor­rect behav­ior. Focus on the cur­rent issue and why it is impor­tant to cor­rect it.

5. Show Your Flair. We are all unique beings. Maybe you are a crazy tie guy or maybe you like to wear bright rimmed eye glasses. Express­ing your per­sonal style makes you mem­o­rable and approach­able. Bosses are human too. Dis­play fam­ily pho­tos, exam­ples of your hob­bies and inter­ests in your office. Give employ­ees oppor­tu­ni­ties to bond with you.

6. Crack the Whip. Address inap­pro­pri­ate behav­ior in a timely man­ner. Be sure to doc­u­ment the dis­cus­sion via email. Writ­ten word car­ries a lot of weight and is per­ma­nent. Mem­o­ries of a dis­cus­sion will fade but email stays forever.

7. Hey, It’s Per­sonal. Some coach­ing can be done in pub­lic, but be sen­si­tive to issues of pri­vacy. If you have some­thing impor­tant to say, invite the employee into your office or go on a walk around the block. Cor­rect­ing in pub­lic can be a blow to someone’s self-esteem, and bad lead­er­ship exam­ples spread like wild­fire. Remem­ber the golden rule: treat oth­ers how you would like to be treated.

8. Walk the Walk. You may have made a lat­eral career move from a com­peti­tor a few years back and are very good at your job, but take the time to edu­cate your­self on the job duties of the man­agers and super­vi­sors who work for you. Noth­ing builds respect faster than get­ting down in the trenches and rolling your sleeves up for a few hours. Being able to fill in for some­one in a pinch not only increases com­pany effi­ciency, but makes you a more valu­able leader.

9. Keep the Peace. All employ­ees are sus­cep­ti­ble to stress. To main­tain a well-functioning team, keep your eyes and ears open. Each indi­vid­ual has his or her per­for­mance lim­its. One employee may be a great multi-tasker and another sin­gle project ori­en­tated. Keep the peace by opti­miz­ing each employee’s strengths and reas­sign projects to suit work traits.

10. Show Me the Money – Not! Do not make the rookie mis­take of assum­ing that that human moti­va­tion is tied to eco­nomic out­comes. Sin­cere per­sonal inter­ac­tion with your staff and col­leagues will get you much further.

11. Be the Squeaki­est. Inex­pe­ri­enced man­agers need their bosses to tell them when their team is over– or under-resourced or unbal­anced. Lis­ten to your employ­ees and be proac­tive. Do you need to acquire addi­tional resources, newer tech­nol­ogy or rec­om­mend process changes? Your employ­ees are inte­gral to your suc­cess. Lis­ten to them and be their voice.

12. Spread the Love. Great bosses redi­rect kudos and credit onto their team, or ide­ally, indi­vid­ual team mem­bers. Be gra­cious and share the spotlight.

Great bosses attract tal­ented peo­ple like Win­nie the Pooh to a pot of honey. Tak­ing time to get to know and appre­ci­ate your staff will not only improve their per­for­mance, but will dra­mat­i­cally improve the work­ing envi­ron­ment. You know you have suc­ceeded when work­ing on improv­ing your man­age­ment skills is no longer work – it’s just who you are and what you do.