Both, And
|
Subscribe to the Three Star Leadership Blog |
|
|
![]() |
|
|
Contact Wally about coaching, consulting, or speaking to your group. |
Leaders OR mangers. Respected OR liked. Arggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
Most of the life of a boss isn't a choice between two alternatives, one of which is good and the other of which is not. Your job is often about doing more than one thing. Consider these pairs.
Accomplish the mission and care for the people. Those are your two prime directives. Great bosses do both, not one or the other.
Respected and liked. Lots of great bosses are both respected and liked. There's no reason why you can't be one of them.
Develop strengths and make weaknesses irrelevant. Building on your strength and the strengths of your team members is a great way to develop your upside potential. But you have to make weaknesses irrelevant, too, or you're building on a shaky foundation.
Today and tomorrow. Sure you've got to handle today's challenges, but part of your job is preparing for tomorrow by helping your team and team members develop knowledge and skills.
How much and also how. It's important to make your numbers, but how you do it is equally important.
Talk the talk and walk the walk. You must set the example for your team, but you must be explicit about your expectations and values, too. You can't just let them watch you and guess.
Leadership and management and supervision. Those are three kinds of work and, if you're a boss, you have to do all three.
Boss's Bottom Line
One of the things that makes your job challenging and, therefore, fun is the number of things you must balance every day.
Wally's Working Supervisor's Support Kit is a collection of information and tools to help working supervisors do a better job. It's based on what Wally's learned in over twenty years of supervisory skills training. Click here to check it out.




Thanks for candid comments about how bosses are to behave. I am not a boss at my position but have a few bosses where I work that actually follow what you preach. They "talk the talk and walk the walk".
Reply to this
Thanks for the kind words, James, and for recognizing that there really are a lot of good bosses out there.
Reply to this
Hi Wally:
Nice post. Like you, whenever possible I'm looking to have my cake and eat it too. Drawing distinctions for definitional purposes is one thing, but needlessly narrowing options for no legitimate reason is quite another. You might enjoy the following video as it speaks to the topic at hand: http://www.n2growth.com/blog/leading-above-the-line
Reply to this
Thanks for the pointer and adding to the conversation, Mike
Reply to this