Dear Boss Diary
8th December 2008 The Ideal Christmas Gift for your Boss
Are you struggling to think of something original and useful to give your boss for Christmas? Well look no further. Here is a book that would be ideal.
Dear Boss can bring peace and goodwill to any stressed workplace. So act today and bring some Christmas cheer to your boss and the team.
1st November 2008 Heading for Recession? Time to improve our skills
Whether or not we are technically in a recession, there is no doubt that economic conditions are tightening in most sectors. The reflex reaction for most businesses and organisations will be to look to reduce costs and cut out unnecessary expenditure.
In such times, leadership becomes ever more important. Tough choices need to be made about how best to go forward and to engage everyone in facing the challenges if the future. This is also a very good time to invest in growing the skills of everyone especially leaders and managers. Investments in learning made now will bear even greater fruit when the better times return.
Getting good quality feedback is one of the best ways to help leaders and managers to continue to learn and grow. Dear Boss offers an amazingly cost effective ways to ensure good quality feedback that is very instructive. Upward feedback is a powerful teacher but it needs to be encouraged and focused if managers and leaders are to reap the benefit of this free source of learning. Dear Boss can help you to keep growing even in the tough times.
24th October 2008 Measuring up to the Boss
I spoke to a boss recently who described an issue he had once had with his team.
"The problem was I made them feel guilty." he said. He was just too nice to this staff and had such high standards that they felt they couldn’t match up to him.
Being a good boss, he regularly had meetings with the staff and always asked them if everything was all right. Of course, not wanting to hurt his feelings, and because they liked him, he was always reassured him that all was well.
Alas he only found out about how he made his staff feel when one by one they started to leave. When eventually he asked they why they had not told him about how they felt they replied “we just didn’t want to hurt your feelings.”
If only they had been using Dear Boss as a way of talking openly and honestly with each other perhaps all that could have been avoided.
20th October 2008 Are you a Generation Y Boss?
The Wall Street Journal recently produced some interesting information about the thirst for feedback amongst Generation Y workers
In a recent survey, 65% of "Generation Y" workers at Ernst & Young said "providing detailed guidance in daily work" was moderately or extremely important, compared with 39% of Baby Boomers. An overwhelming 85% of Gen Y employees said their age-group peers want "frequent and candid performance feedback," while only half of Boomers agreed. Generation Y included those born after 1980; Gen X, those born from 1965 to 1980; and Boomers, 1946 to 1964. (The Wall Street Journal)
Presumably this Is the case for Generation Y bosses too? Are you 28 or under and have a thirst for feedback about how you are doing as a boss.
Dear Boss may just help you to become an even greater boss.
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1st October 2008 Building Trust
Talk to any group of people about their work and it won’t be long before the issue of trust comes into the conversation. Trust within an organisation can be fragile and difficult to sustain. The messages that fly about can be confusing and contradictory. Trust is critical to effective leadership. Do people trust their leader to take them in the best direction? Are leaders trusted to have the interests of others at heart?
A breakdown in trust leads to disengagement, conflicts not being addressed and lack of productivity
Building trust is about attending to the little but important things and doing so consistently. Often leaders fail to appreciate what matter to others and what they really care about.
Dear Boss is a great way of helping managers and leaders to discover what people care about and identify the little things which if addressed now can build a great place to work.
