Great bosses never hold their horses

Gaston de Rosayro

What actually differentiates a good leader from a great leader? When you think of strong leaders and possibly good and decent bosses, you probably think of people who are decisive, bold, confident, and fearless. You are not wrong. Good leaders have all of these qualities. But how many good leaders are also loyal? I must admit I don't know. But what I do know is that every great leader possesses that great attribute of dependability.

Loyalty is one of the core values of leadership. In similarity to a good soldier or commando you must learn that your team is everything to you. You succeed with them, and you fail without them. And you never leave anyone behind or in the lurch.

Great leaders infuse in their subordinates the belief that every person on the team is as important as the next. They include everyone in the celebration of success. And they don't blame any one person for a failure. So the next time you have a business success, publicly thank people in lower-level support roles for their contributions to the team.

Try to be as candid as possible with your employees, and never lie to them. Loyalty is built on trust. If your people don't believe you are being forthcoming with them, they won't trust you to have cover for them.

Don't turn your back on them if they mess up. Help them figure it out, and be as loyal during the bad times as during the good. Pull aside someone who has had a bad day and give that person ten minutes of your time. Make it clear that he or she still fits into the future of your company.

Yes, great leaders know how to tie up loose ends and make sure their employees are happy and ready to move forward. Remember it pays dividends to pay compliments regularly. Some bosses try to avoid dishing out positive feedback, fearing too much praise will go to their employees' heads. But on the other hand too little will damage a company's morale. You should find a justified compliment for every employee and make it a regular thing. This will keep employees feeling appreciated and motivated.

Great bosses understand what employees truly need and then provide it to them. Why do some bosses attract the best and most loyal employees, while others constantly drive them away? Why are team members of certain leaders prepared to follow them to Hell? The answer lies in the basic traits that each boss brings to the job.

While average bosses are obsessed with their own goals, extraordinary bosses understand what employees need and then give those things to them. With that in mind, here are some traits that employees want to see the most in the people for whom they work:

Simplicity is an important facet. The business world is a complex collection of trade-offs. When confronted with these ambiguities, most people either become frozen into inaction or revert to doing whatever seems familiar. Employees need a boss to simplify these complexities, so that their daily activities and actions make sense and have more purpose. Fairness is crucial to bolster all-round morale. While it is undeniably true that 'life is not fair,' the desire for equitable treatment is so ingrained in the human psyche that even murderers protest when they feel they are being treated unfairly.

Employees therefore want their boss to reward people in proportion to their contribution and to avoid anything that smacks of favouritism. Humility should be a normal part of your behaviour. Most people strongly dislike arrogant individuals. When employees are forced to tolerate a know-it-all boss, that dislike quickly changes to contempt. On the other hand, employees respect bosses who are humble enough to admit they don't know everything and that they are sometimes, and even often, mistaken.

Transparency and accessibility are another significant aspect of rallying the troops around you. A boss who disappears into his or her office, makes a decision, and then emerges with a set of commands leaves the impression that the decision is arbitrary. Even if they don't like a decision, employees far prefer to understand the workings of boss's mind and exactly why that decision was made.

Generosity is another feature that will hold you in good stead. This is not about money. Money is what employees expect from their job, not from their boss. Employees want bosses to be generous with useful information, generous with their time, generous with their praise, and generous with the kind of coaching that helps employees learn how to do their jobs more quickly and effectively.

Patience is also a virtue that every leader should cultivate. Employees secretly despise bosses who are so emotionally weak that they must foist their anger and frustration onto others in order to make themselves feel better. By contrast, employees deeply appreciate a boss who both remains calm in a crisis and is patient with each employee's learning curve.

Honesty as the hackneyed cliché goes is the best policy. In a business world where everything seems up-in-the-air and uncertain, employees crave the security of knowing that a boss will do the right thing, both when dealing with employees and dealing with the outside world. Bosses who can inspire such trust inevitably attract employees who are themselves trustworthy.

Great leaders believe firmly that employee empowerment has become one of the key characteristics of innovative and ultimately profitable companies. When leaders give other people around them a voice in the decision-making process, they foster collaboration and, again, build trust.

When you give team members the ability to take advantage of opportunities, it sends a powerful message: You trust them. They, in turn, will be enthused by what they do, feel more connected to their work and ultimately return that trust in spades.

Authenticity is another vital component of good leadership. Above all, true leaders learn to lead by example. Leaders must be willing to serve as models for their employees' behaviour by matching their words with their actions.

Leading by example not only helps earn employees' trust, but also sends the message that leaders are not asking people to do something they wouldn't do themselves. Leaders are clear on what their values are and are consistent in applying them. As part of that, they must have the courage to hold true to them. I for one would like to coin a Yankee-Doodle-Dandy sounding phrase for it which goes: "Great bosses never hold their horses."

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