Who’s The Boss

Who’s the Boss

Bosses have a major influence on the life of employees. For instance, the boss can easily cause disengagement among the employees due to the pressure that he or she places on them to perform their duties, which leads to stress-related to work (Fermin, 2014). Nevertheless, not every boss is bad: a number of them are great because they inspire their employees and care about their wellbeing. At this point in my life, I have faced different types of bosses: some of whom were great, while others were not. The boss is an individual who can influence employees negatively or positively because of their characteristics and behaviors.

The Worst Boss

There was no day that I heard my boss compliment or appreciate anyone for doing a good job. The best remark he could give was for us to try harder next time to perfect our performance. The boss did not motivate; instead, he discouraged employees with his negative comments making them feel lesser and ineffective (Fermin, 2014). It does not feel good to work in an environment where your work is not recognized or valued. My boss made me have low self-esteem because I felt that I was never good enough for the job or position I occupied in the company. There are several occasions when I felt like resigning from the company because of the frustrations at work.

In addition, my boss was overly controlling. His work was to assign us to work, but he has never bothered to explain anything. My boss used his influence to ensure that we felt frustrated when handling various tasks (Fermin, 2014). Every time he conducted a performance review and addressed the outcome in a negative tone as if we never placed any effort into our work. Such an approach was demoralizing for us not to recognize our efforts while making us less motivated to work on other projects. For this reason, I was never willing to be innovative with the projects that I handled. Entrusting an employee with work is a good thing to do, but bosses need to appreciate the efforts put to achieve the results.

The Best Boss

During our lives, we meet different people with different personalities some of whom leave a positive impact on our lives. I have got a chance to work with a boss whom I can describe as good because of how he treated us. He understood my needs and those of other employees. He developed a good employee-employer relationship, to know us and learn each of our potential and strengths. I got along well with my boss, and on several occasions, he motivated me to learn new things, though he never got involved in the way in which I performed my duties. However, he was always ready to listen and encourage me when I got stuck in my work. My boss taught me the aspects of pushing beyond my limits, which motivated me to work hard and produce the best results.

Whenever I found myself in a problem, my boss used to refer to the mistakes as a chance to correct me and ensure that I did my work properly. He was more of a coach in my life who maintained proper balance with me regarding how I handled my assignments. Despite that he worked on the sidelines, I could feel his presence around me, especially his encouragement to put my best efforts to achieve good results. It means that my boss created an environment of trust and respect, which led to integrity in terms of how I delivered and performed my work. I developed the courage and strength to do things that I thought I could not handle because of the encouragement I received from my boss who was a good listener and advisor.

Leadership Traits of Each Boss

a. Good Boss

i) Passionate

My good boss was unforgettable due to the passion that he had for work and people. He not only encouraged us to put extra effort into our work but also ensured that we accomplished our tasks by providing us with the right tools. It made everyone in the company want to work by going the extra mile in performing the work duties because everything was provided to achieve success. Work for me was fun as I felt that I was valued based on the boss’s good reaction to our performance. In case I made a mistake, he would correct me in the right way showing that he cared about us as employees.

ii) Responsible

My boss always took responsibility for every wrong move that he made showing the true trait of leadership in him. He has never used to cover up his mistakes; instead, he truthfully addressed every issue in a way that would bring a positive change. Through this, it was easy to predict the next move that would lead to good results. The boss has also never hoarded the information which he thought was important for completing our tasks showing that he was responsible for ensuring that success was achieved in the right way.

iii) Inspire and Teach

My boss was exceptional because he inspired me to work hard by teaching me the basics while leaving the rest of the work for me to do. His main aim was to cultivate good performance in me by teaching me the right ways to handle various tasks. I felt that he had me in his thoughts because he helped me to succeed.

b. Worst Boss

(1) Motivator

Regardless of mostly negative experiences, my boss was a great motivator and he achieved this by allowing the employees to learn new things without any form of involvement. He aimed to see that all the expectations were met and good results were achieved. While the overall atmosphere seemed frustrating, his approach gave me a chance to push beyond my limits by working extra hard to meet all the expectations and being innovative, to some extent.

(2) Truthful and Open

My boss was good at speaking the truth without hiding anything. Although some of the employees considered this characteristic arrogance, I viewed it as a good leadership trait. It is because it enabled me to know my limitations as a worker and look for ways to address these weaknesses. The critics also helped in getting things done in the right way since employees feared being ashamed before everyone for poor performance. At the same time, my boss was quick in telling the truth when he sensed that performance was decreasing by addressing it to the employees to make the necessary improvements.

(3) Authoritative

My boss was more of a dictator who used his authority to control the goals to be achieved in the company. As a group, the employees did not have any power to formulate the objectives. This style of leadership was efficient as it created harmony regarding the work being done. Each person knew their roles, as dictated by the boss, and worked towards achieving the same goal. On the other hand, his authoritative leadership style exerted pressure on the employees to perform resulting in the goals being met.

Leadership Styles Employed

I can describe my great boss to possess a participative leadership style as he valued all the employees’ input at work. In this way, he allowed us to make decisions regarding what to do rather than imposing his ideas on the employees. Participative leadership style is the main reason my morale at work was always high: I felt that my decisions mattered based on the opinions and feedback provided by my boss. On the contrary, my worst boss used the laissez-faire leadership style. It is because he never followed or provided feedback to employees. We were always left to make choices on our own, yet the boss ended up criticizing the results which demoralized me as a worker.

Lessons Learnt

Leadership requires wise decisions to be made by the leaders whereas they can turn into bad bosses. A good leader should always listen to their employees by paying attention to their needs. At the same time, authenticity is important because it is the best way a leader can share their values with the employees without any contradictions. I have also learned that it is not productive for a leader to express full authority; in contrast, they should involve the employees in the decision-making process. In summary, I have learned that leaders or bosses have the potential to influence the employees negatively or positively based on their leadership styles and traits.

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