Well i must admit that I had my fair share of bad bosses. What was my bad boss doing ? Well basically he lied, exaggerated, never gave me credit (or always thought of finding bad things in good outcomes) etc.

I was lucky that I was working in a matrix management system (in that, my day-to-day tasks were handled by this “bad boss”, but I also had a “good boss” that did not have a say in the overall situation – he handled mostly holidays etc).

Since some of you, reading this, are not lucky enough to have the good boss to help you out, here is what I have learned from this good boss (I will pass the b*llshit found on Google in that “you need to make sure he is bad…” – for me he was clearly a bad boss)

1. Always have a paper trail

This is basically always making sure that any conversation you have with a bad boss (that also lies) is to have everything on email! There are no ways of him to say “i did not say that”, “you did not understand what i was saying” etc.

After a meeting where you agreed on something or he has told you something, always send an email where you say “As we discussed, we agreed on the following: …“. Of course this situation will make him more cautious when he is telling you stuff, because he now knows you are “prepared” and it will appear on email.

2. Do an excellent job

Even if you know that he will try to find mistakes in what you did, his bosses (if you do a great job) will see what you do (or make them notice if they do not know) so that he cannot just throw lies around.

This is one of the big challenges of any manager. How do you ignite the “fire” within your employees.

What can a manager do to engage his team?

Here are a couple of ways to start motivating your team and engage them:

1. Believe in them – you need to be sure and never stop believing that people can make extraordinary things happen. You need to establish trust with them by applying candor, transparency, and always giving them credit for good performance

2. Create personal and professional connection with them – create connection and keep people informed and in conversation. Good leaders get into everyone’s skin, exuding positive energy and optimism.

3. Engage them – let employees be active in helping make things better. As them for ideas on how to improve the process and follow on them, if they create a great benefit for the company. More often then not employees can improve on the process and make it more efficient.

Do you inspire your employees?

This is an important part of any manager’s role. It’s not just a nice thing – it’s a requirement (although many managers are not held to a high enough standard). Inspiring team members is a requirement because managers are responsible for optimising performance and retention – and uninspired employees don’t do their best work and often do not stay for too long.

So with that, here are a few ideas for how to inspire others. Feel free to add your ideas in the comments.

1. Be a role model (of courage). When our managers demonstrate courage, this will inspire us to do the same and we will respect them all the more.
2. Take a stand. Share your perspective and be open. The most inspiring leaders have a strong vision for how things ought to be.
3. Listen more, speak less. Show your employees that you value input and collaboration. This applies to your team members and peers. Be truly interested in them and try to see the issue from their side.
4. Beat your goals and don’t rest until you do. People want to work for successful leaders.
5. Make them feel important. In fact, swap places with them every now and then. Show them you want to understand what their world looks and feel like and that their work is truly important (and believe that is true)
6. Represent your employee’s needs to senior management and with your peers. Take the initiative to make things better. Wow, that will speak volumes about your intention to serve them and this is very inspiring.
7. Adopt a win-win attitude. Show them what they can learn even in boring tasks or some they do not like. Nothing inspires more people to do their best if they are seeing that they could gain something from it.

The above 7 ways of inspiring and motivating others is a must for any manager. That said, I have met several managers who flatly reject that they need to inspire others. If that’s you, I recommend another career path because you obviously don’t understand the power and importance of your management position.

What are your ways of inspiring others?

What is coaching ?

Coaching is an activity oriented towards developing the abilities of people to reach the desired objectives. It is a personal interaction, a dialog between 2 people, where the coach only assists and helps the person being coached.

Coaching is not oriented towards the past, but towards the future and finding solutions for difficult issues but without giving any specific instructions. As Timothy Gallwey says

A coaching session not only helps the one that is being coached, but also the coach himself. So we highly recommend trying it out.

We always hear about adopting a win-win attitude, but how can we achieve this ?

Here you will find 5 steps on how to think on your next negotiation and try to achieve a win-win outcome:

Step1 – Thinking assertive

This way of thinking basically says “I do not have to lose for somebody else to win” or “If i win, somebody has to lose”. There is always a possibility of a good result that it is beneficial to both parties.

Step2 – Mentioning your own needs and wishes