January 2, 2010

If you’re not already known as a great boss, I’m assuming you’d like that distinction. Why else would you take time from your busy schedule to read this column? So, in addition to applauding your commitment, let me offer some tips. Here are five things you can do in 2010 that will help improve your team, your workplace and your reputation as a leader. Each of these can have an immediate, positive impact if done right.

I’ll dedicate future columns to detailed advice for each of these tips:

1. Double the amount of feedback you provide employees. Even bosses who are good at giving feedback are asked for more. Imagine how starved your staff is if it’s not your strong suit. The quick way to get into the habit is to consider every interaction an opportunity to let people know how they’re doing, especially if they have done something well or are improving.

2. Lead strategically. Employees respect leaders who can clearly state the team’s mission, define what success looks like, establish priorities for getting there and help remove any obstacles. Compare that to the boss who simply reacts to the crisis of the day or says “do it because I say so — or because THEY (meaning higher-ups) say so.”

3. Do a systems check. This is one of the most important things a leader can do. Step back from the daily work and look at how things happen. How is information stored and shared? How many hands touch the product and why? How does an idea become a reality — with what steps and whose involvement? Those are just a few questions that challenge the status quo. Positive, important change is often defeated by entrenched systems that people assume can’t be altered.

4. Learn something new and scary. The best leaders I know are continuous learners. They do it for self-improvement, but it also serves as an inspiration to their staff. There’s nothing like a smart person acknowledging that he or she has something to learn, especially if the topic is challenging.

5. Improve your emotional intelligence. In these changing times, effective leadership requires the ability to connect effectively with people, to read the mood of the team and know how to improve it, and to build relationships. The best bosses aren’t just self-aware, they know how to leverage their strengths and master their challenges. By managing themselves, they lead others.

I promise to provide more tips and tactics for each of these in my next five columns. But for now, how about getting started? I have one more tip that will help you succeed in keeping these resolutions. I share that secret in today’s podcast:

Poynter’s “What Great Bosses Know” podcast is sponsored by The City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism. Poynter’s leadership and management expert Jill Geisler shares practical information on leadership and management that’s valuable for bosses in newsrooms and all walks of life.

You can subscribe to this podcast via RSS or to any of our podcasts on iTunes U.

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Jill Geisler is the inaugural Bill Plante Chair in Leadership and Media Integrity, a position designed to connect Loyola’s School of Communication with the needs…
Jill Geisler

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