Stepout

by CA Mohit Khandelwal

Hurdles and obstacles are always going to be a part of your success story.

Study says that there are four zones which one has to cross to become successful. If we somehow manage to come out of our comfort zone, then a new zone encircles us and that new zone is nothing but a zone of fear. What is the zone of fear? Let’s go back to our childhood days. The days when we used to be comfortable at our home. And then the toddler grew up and started going to school. The day this toddler came to know about the school, tears rolled down from his eyes as he was leaving the comfort zone and entering into a new zone of fear. Growing up at the school, making new friends, each day comes with a new learning and so this phase is called the learning zone of that child. After graduating from the school, we are again in our comfort zone and afraid to move towards our new destination which is college. Just a thought of separation from our friends and teachers, we are engrossed by the fear. Now the story repeats, in college we have similar anxiety. Gradually, all the college students, college faculties become our friends and we wish to live this short span of time to the fullest.

These things happen every single day. Right from the day the toddler is born to the day the old man dies, life compels us to leave the comfort zone, enter into the fear zone and learn new things in the learning zone and eventually move towards the growth zone.

Here is a small anecdote for you all to realize that ARE YOU REALLY SATISFIED WITH YOU ALL ARE DOING?

Once upon a time there was a king, who received two beautiful, magnificent Peregrine falcons as a gift. He handed them over to a Falcon trainer. After a couple of months, the trainer informed the king that one of the two falcons was performing outstandingly. Flying majestically! Soaring into the heights of the sky!. But the other one had not moved at all from its branch from the very day that it had started training them. The king brought healers and sorcerers from all over the place to try and get the falcon to move, but the bird just wouldn’t fly. Having tried everything he could, the frustrated king said to his minister, “Maybe we need someone more familiar with nature. Someone who understands animals and birds. I think only such a person can solve this problem. Go, look for someone like this from the countryside and assign this task to him. The next morning the king was thrilled to see the second falcon soaring high above the palace gardens. Delighted, he called his minister and asked him to get the donor of this miracle to him. The minister brought a simple farmer to the king. The king asked the farmer, “How did you make this falcon fly?” The farmer replied, “It was very easy, I simply cut the branch on which the bird was sitting.”

Here comes the message “we are all created to fly”. But the snag is that we treat ourselves as the second falcons which usually sit on a branch at his comfort, not doing much in life waiting for the right time to enter into the new path. Apparently, the ones who like a life like the first falcons have already reached the skies. We all are here to live our life with incredible potential we all have. But, the problem is we always muddle between the thoughts of “Should I try this? Or Should I go for that ? and end up doing nothing except sitting in our comfort branches, clinging to the things that are familiar to us. A human is so much comfortable in his comfort zone that he is not willing to explore new things, not willing to take the risks.

The sky has no limit and the opportunities are endless, but for most of us it remains undiscovered, untouched. The reason behind that is we continue to live in a familiar environment. We live a mediocre life just because we are enjoying life in our comfort zone, instead of exciting, thrilling.

Now the question comes that what is the branch that is holding us from flying high? What is the fear that is stopping us from taking the risk? Just a simple answer to these unanswered questions is unless we cut off the branches with which we are so used to we can never take off and reach the newer heights in our life. Now it’s completely up to us to decide whether we want to continue being the second falcon or touch the sky where infinite opportunities are waiting for us just like the first falcon.

Dear readers

“When you leave your comfort zone then only the magic happens”. So, just cut off the comfort zone branch and take off to your new flight.

Thanks

CA Mohit Khandelwal

Does anybody plan to be a bad boss? No, not at all. Sometimes, bosses just don’t know any better and become deficient by default. Some of us are boss by luck and others earn their way into it. Truth is, unfortunately, we all become a boss without any proper training. There is no manual provided to us. We do not know how to effectively manage people. So then how great bosses have been able to manage people so efficiently? Let’s demystify……

Being a boss isn’t complicated, but being a great boss is. It certainly requires focused thought and attention to the team to earn this badge. When so many people put their faith in us, follow us, we owe it to them to be our best for their sake. We must learn then how to lead and guide people effectively on the way.

Everyone aspires to be a good, supportive, appreciable boss, but why does it matter in the first place? Let’s delve deeper -

Why Being A ‘Great Boss’ Matters -

1 Reduce Attrition - People quit organisation because of their bosses and not because of the organisations. High attrition leads to low morale in the team which sets up a chain reaction that weakens productivity and growth. GOOD BOSSES has the power and capability to reduce attrition.

2 Improve Employee Loyalty - When bosses lead with confidence, it builds team morale. When the team knows, the boss has their back, it encourages loyalty. Being decisive and standing up for your team is the golden rule.

3 Improve Productivity - Being consistent and available for the team directly impacts productivity and is the characteristic of a Good Boss. Employees who feel that they are valued by their bosses will never find it challenging to meet targets and deadlines. They will be motivated to positive risk-taking for innovation and improved productivity.

4 Improve Ownership - Great Bosses communicate the purpose and objective of the task they ask their team to do. When the vision and goal is communicated, team will automatically feel connected to the project in hand that improves ownership.

5 Healthy Work Culture - Healthy work culture means freedom to express, innovate and experiment which is fostered by a great boss. Great bosses allow people to come forward with their problems, encourage them to share their frustrations and act as solution providers for them. Open communication is the thumb rule to be a great boss.

Essentials for Being A Great Boss

Great bosses exhibit management and leadership skills, ranging from self-awareness and resilience to emotional intelligence and sharp problem-solving skills. Let’s explore more -

1 Know Yourself - Knowing ourselves, our strengths and weaknesses, how do we deal with situations, how do we behave under stress and difficulties, how do we make our decisions are few things that comes handy on the path to becoming a great boss. Self-awareness along with self-acceptance makes us come across as human and fallible with whom people will be able to relate to easily.

2 Coping Mechanism - A Great leader is who can change and adapt to deal with unexpected opportunities or challenges. How we handle setbacks determines speaks volumes about us being a great leader. Bosses who remain calm and have their coping mechanism in place are great leaders. They are the ones who are better equipped to navigate through a crisis and bounce back with positive outcomes when facing adversities. Great boss are expected to have clear goals and a positive attitude.

3  Effective Delegation - Identifying the team’s strengths, delegating work accordingly, praising or critiquing people’s performance and investing time in their personal development is crucial to get the desired output from the team. Great bosses maximise team potential by effectively praising and recognising what the team does well. Offering encouragement, support and building team members’ confidence by setting clear goals is the stamp of a good boss. Good bosses also thrive by actively soliciting teams’ suggestions and ideas to get the best possible output from them.

4 Collaborative Decisions - Collaborative decisions, ensuring that perspectives from the team is taken while making a difficult decisions makes us stand out as a good boss. Consciously assembling a diverse team of people who are continuously challenging themselves and who can themselves towards a smart decision is crucial.

5 Reasonable Objectives – Every boss has a lot to achieve and transferring the load arbitrarily down the line does not help. Having reasonable objectives and clearly defined goals drive the team to attain victory and success. Great bosses work towards limiting the frustration, confusion and chaos by providing a clear sense of direction. Assessment of the team and then delegating work proportionately is a quality a good manager’s must to have.

6 Adaption – In a team, everyone is unique and there can’t be one-size-fits-all style of management. While some would want emotional support, some hand-holding, some a gentle push and some might be looking forward to encouragement and motivation. Adapting their management style according to individuals is what makes a good boss while accepting people as individuals.

7 Scrutinize Self - Nothing inspire the team more than their boss setting higher and higher benchmarks leading with examples. When the boss publicly accepts the weakness, consciously work on them and make adjustments to improve, the entire team benefits. Becoming a boss is a journey where one needs to grow him/herself each day when s/he leads.

8 Fix Things – A great boss is always honest with his/her team about what went wrong, and makes sure to provide solutions on how to fix it. Clear communication and instructions can nip the problems in the bud itself. Be the boss that fixes the problem and not blames. Bosses who passes blames whenever something goes wrong are not trusted by the team.

9 Strength-Spotting - The simplest, easiest and highly effective way to bring out the best in the team is strength spotting. As humans, our tendency is to notice mistakes and weaknesses in people. Continually pointing out weaknesses or mistakes tend to elicit dishonesty or defensiveness in team. Praising and acknowledgement, specific and timely, will reap significant benefits in team morale and engagement.

10 Captain Cool - One sure-fire way to keep people motivated, engaged and productive is to value and respect them. Treating them with dignity and respect even when tempers flare earns us respect as leaders. Respecting their personal time, providing them reasonable timelines, helping them correct their mistakes or misses earns you the badge of a great boss.

Irrespective of all efforts, there’s a stigma around bosses, people always complain about their bosses constantly. So what can be done to remove the stereotype attached to the title - BOSS. Below tips can help -

Tips to attain ‘FULL BOSS POTENTIAL’ and to ‘EARN APPRECIATION’ –

1 Coach Mindset – A coach mindset is all about knowing the best positions for their teams and to realise that the success is determined by the team collectively. With the coach mindset, we need to place colleagues at places where they can utilise their strengths to the maximum. A coach/boss will help people to identify and utilise their maximum potential. Coaches/bosses not only provide tips and techniques but also communicate clear standards to measure success. Leading by example, clear feedback, encouragements, acknowledgements, and celebration of success are sure-fire way to earn appreciation.

2 Personal Attention – Great bosses know that a little kindness, understanding and personal connect goes a long way. Understand that team members are individuals and not just cogs in a machinery and that they may have individual issues back at home which can impact their performance at work. Grow your relationship by spending quality time with them, ask polite but now overly personal questions. This will help the team to be more inspired, motivated, committed, engaged and innovative. As good bosses we need to be visible and available for them.

3 Be Authentic & Transparent – People have more respect and regard for a boss who is authentic, not fake and transparent. Involve them into the organisational problems, seek their help so that they feel they are part of the team. This will establish that they are trusted and valued. Involving them into the decision making process will not only boost their worth and will motivate them to work harder but we will win their loyalty and commitment too. Authenticity and transparency goes a long way in building a strong bond with the team.

4 Shared Vision - Good bosses know that decisions will be more accepted and successful if the team is involved into them from the start. The team should not feel that the decision is arbitrary. Team will prefer to understand the reasons behind the decision to fully accept it. Good bosses help the team connect with the goals and objectives too so that they can take ownership. The journey then becomes easy, worthwhile and enjoyable for the whole team and they will perform with pride and care and be grateful for the empowerment.

5 Be Inspirational – The team generally looks up to the boss for inspiration and this can happen when the leader/boss takes pride in his/her work. Leaders always look for ways to make their output amazing and productive. We should be true to our words and fulfil our promises so that their faith and trust in the leadership remains intact. We must deliver first what we expect them to deliver. We must show them the way how to get things done. If we want them to achieve their targets, we must achieve our own targets. If we wish them to always be on time, we should be on time always. If we wish them to respect deadlines, we must ensure we don’t miss ours. Leading by example, that’s the only way!

6 Respect & Appreciate Them - Good bosses treat teammates with respect, honour, dignity, and pride. We must regard them as organisation’s assets rather than organisation’s expenses. Generally, the credits are passed on to the bosses for a project, ensure that due credits gets passed on downwards too post accomplishments. Rewards, acknowledgements and recognition from time to time will earn their trust, loyalty, and faith in us. Good Leaders/bosses focus on clear, constructive and specific feedback instead of criticism or incessant pointing out mistakes or misses.

7 Be Accountable And Generous - Always remember that as a boss, we have the greatest responsibility in the team, especially for failures. While pinpointing a teammates’ mistakes, we should not forget to accept our share of fault. Generosity is good bosses’ greatest attribute, be it accepting the faults or be it acknowledging others’ achievement. We shouldn’t hog the limelight. As a good boss, we must – a Fix the failures before the occurrence, b Acknowledge team’s achievements, c Take the ownership of team’s failures

8 Essential Discipline - Without discipline, there is no success, that’s the thumb rule. Thus too much of kindness too is not good for the team. It’s essential for a good boss to set rules and system for the team and ensure that are adhered to. Penalties and punishments too should be spelt out clearly.

9 Realistic Challenges - Routine and unchallenging tasks not only become boring for the team but also stagnate team’s growth. A good boss always pushes team’s limits and challenge them to move out of their comfort zone. Promises to deliver what the team can’t achieve can put everyone in trouble.

10 Quick Decisions - Good bosses are known for their measured but quick decisions. They understand that beyond a point, additional information will only delay the process and won’t be a value add. Obsessing and second guessing about the decision is always a waste of time which a good boss never allows. Good bosses are not risk-averse when it comes to making a calculated decision.

11 Set High Standards - Foundation of success and achievements lies in setting standards high. Ensuring that the team understands and accepts these standards is a good leaders’ job. Good leaders keep pushing their team to maximise their potential. This also means understanding what the team may need from the boss and provide for them. Instilling the faith in them that they can achieve greater heights by not focus- ing on shortcomings but what has been accomplished is a major goal for a good boss.

12 Trust the Team - Most of us fall into the trap of “I can do a better job”. Great Bosses do understand that by doing this, they are restricting the team’s growth and robbing them of the learning experiences. Teach, coach, mentor, counsel, do whatever it takes but enable them to rise to the occasion. Bonus would be, we will have ample time and energy freed up to take on more important tasks.

13 Get Perspectives - Good leaders always seek out inputs and perspectives from the team. They don’t let their team’s opinions, ideas and thoughts go to waste with a “my way or highway” attitude. This way they not only have plethora of options and ideas but will ensure that the team feels heard, valued and respected.

Along with a list of essentials, its imperative to have a list of don’ts as well, isn’t it -

Things to avoid as a great boss –

1 Lose Temper – We all have frustrating days at work where nothing goes as per plan and it is easy to lose temper which will only make the team fearful of us or resent us. Screaming, passing hurtful remarks will create a void between the team and boss which will be difficult to fill. Teams hate bosses who dump their anger and frustration on them. On the contrary they have deep regards for someone who remains calm in crisis even. The hallmark of a great boss is that they never treat their teammates as their punching bags or take out that anger or frustration on their team.

2 Be A Fixer, Always - As a boss, we are accountable for everything that goes wrong but we don’t have to fix everything on our own. Identify from the team who is capable of handling the solution and make him/ her accountable for the situation and solution. By providing readymade fix-it-solutions, we would deprive the team not only of the learning experiences but also would undermine their talent.

3 Don’t Speak First - As a good boss, our role is to invite the team to share their ideas and thoughts and to stimulate their thinking. If we start sharing our perspective first, the team will have no choice but to agree. Agreed that as a boss, we have more experience and wisdom but by always sharing our perspective only will restrict team’s growth. The team may start depending solely on our brain for solutions. Asking for their perspectives will also express that we value their inputs and opinions on important matters and, in turn, will earn us respect. Collective perspectives will help us formulate better management decisions. Teams also respect bosses who admit they don't know everything and do not claim to be an expert.

4 Favouritism - We tend to like some of our team members better than others. These personal preferences should not come in our ways of how we deal with them professionally. When bosses play favourites, it demoralises others. Teammates would assume that their best would not count much because of favouritism. It may also spark hostility toward the favourite.

5 Expect Them To Be Mind-Reader - Open and two way communication is the sure-fire way to be an effective boss. We should not expect them to read our silence or in between the lines communication, the chances are they will read what we didn’t intend. Great bosses always keep the lines of communication open.

6 Micromanaging – Checking out the employees every now and then, tracking every minute of theirs spent in office is not a good sign. Good bosses know that they have hired adults who can manage their time and responsibilities. There should not be any need to micro-manage them. What should matter is the task accomplished well and within the time frame.

7 Taking Things Personally - Good Bosses know how to maintain a thorough professional relationship while keeping it warm too. If we pick up something for the grapevine, its important for us to not take it personally. Accepting the criticism well and learning from it, makes us a good boss. Bosses are privy to confidential information too, its our responsibility to stay out of the interpersonal complexities.

We all know that there is no straight formula for becoming a great boss. Our mission is to inspire and motivate the team to deliver. But, what do the team expects from us is crucial too so that they follow our lead? What personality traits and attributes do we need to win people’s hearts and minds? Let’s find out -

Great Boss From The Lens Of A Team Member –

1. Knowledge - Good bosses are expected to be knowledgeable. They are expected to be a source of inspiration, motivation and selfaware. Good bosses are expected to explore opportunities to learn new things, improve upon their work. Truly great leaders are also expected to be the subject matter experts.

2. Composed – Constant monitoring of the emotions, understanding them, bringing in self-control in challenging situations is the basic expectation from a great boss. Team expects them to remain calm, composed and content even when the situation go out of hand. Even in the adverse situations, they are expected to adapt, adjust, stay in control of situation.

3. Grace & Gentleness – Great bosses are the perfect combination of being strong and gentle. Intimidation, anger, manipulation, frustration etc. are not associated with their personalities. Being approachable, easy, self-control, cheerful, willing worker all the qualities that one expects from a great leader/boss.

4. Honesty & Hard Work - While honesty allows genuine connection with people, hard work takes them to reach greater heights and attain success. Integrity, passion and enthusiasm is what teammates will look forward to in a leader/boss.

5. Deliberation & Certainty - Too much deliberation to make a decision is ineffective and misleading and thus teams want their bosses to be quick but thoughtful decision makers. Speaking assertively is a trait that the team would want to see in their leader. Leader/ boss must deliver his/her ideas with conviction and certainty.

6. Positive Body Language – Positive body language makes all the difference in a conversation because how we say something can be more important than what we say. Enthusiastic tone, eye contact, attentiveness, undivided attention, rephrasing, leaning toward the speaker are all positive body language forms that great bosses must have a mastery on.

7.  Confidence - Confidence in self and the team yield victories which increases the morals and eagerness to tackle future challenges. Faith in the team’s abilities and capabilities is a trait that the team wants to see in a leader/ boss.

8. Courage - Fear is a choice and is nothing but an emotion fuelled by imagination. Courage is real. Great leaders know this and thus they flip fear into courage. They do not allow the fear to take over, rather bring on the courage to conquer their fears. Teams look forward to derive their courage from great bosses.

9. Gratitude - The hallmark of a good leader is gratitude. Instead of basking in the self-glory of achievements, great leaders acknowledge other’s contribution in their success, be it their family, mentors, colleagues or teammates. They have gratitude in their hearts for people who are up and down the ladder for their role in their personal success journey.

Final Thoughts –

A good boss badge is not that easy to earn. It not only takes a lot of patience, diligence, self-control, and even compassion but also involves constant learning and practice. There may be lot of failed expectations on the way, frustrations and heart-burns too because it’s not easy to manage people. Every individual has different expectations, different capabilities, their own share of issues and to take them together on a journey of success is no easy task. Nevertheless, as long as we are sincere in our efforts to lead, chances are we can earn respect and appreciation from people and can make our place in their heart as GOOD BOSS.

Key Takeaways –

1. MANAGE individuals, not numbers.

2. ADAPT your style basis individuals.

3. MEASURE what's relevant.

4. STAY cool-headed.

5. TAKE responsibility for failures.

6. SHARE your vision.

7. LISTEN rather than providing solutions.

8. TREAT everyone equally, fairly.

9. DON'T expect more than you're willing to give.

10. GET perspectives.

11. DON'T procrastinate.

12. NEVER micromanage.

13. ACKNOWELDGE team efforts.

14. TAKE consistent actions.

15. SPARE time for open communication. Being a great leader/boss requires personal growth. No matter how efficient we are today, there is always room to grow and improve. With the above tips and insights, one can lead with strength and confidence and earn respect and appreciation both!

“The challenge of leadership is to be strong, but not rude; be kind, but not weak; be bold, but not a bully; be thoughtful, but not lazy; be humble, but not timid; be proud, but not arrogant; have humour, but without folly.”

Author – Dr. Neeta Pant

PhD in Clinical Psychology, Honorary PhD in Social Work Senior HR Professional,, Executive Life Coach, POSH & POCSO Enabler, Soft Skills Trainer, Master Hypnotist, Graphologist