The best bosses

Take a moment to remember your
favorite boss — the person who most
inspired you to be your best. Have you ever examined further the traits you most
admired in him or her? Looking past that person’s awards and successes, you’ll likely
uncover a caring leader, skilled in relationship management.

So what creates the foundation for a caring
and effective style for leading people to be
their best?

“It’s all about healthy, successful, effective
relationships,” says Ann Phillips, senior consulting partner, The Ken Blanchard Companies, in San Diego. “And it’s our relationships — positive or negative — that determine the outcomes and results we get.”

Smart Business recently spoke with
Phillips about certain key concepts explained in Ken Blanchard’s book, “Whale
Done,” including “best boss activities” and
the three keys to positive relationships.

What is putting even more focus on leadership activities?

According to a 2002 study by The
Conference Board, just over half of all workers in the U.S. are satisfied with their jobs,
compared to 59 percent back in 1995. So
today’s leaders have to develop strategies
around increasing employee retention and
keeping the best talent. We talk a lot about
improving service to your team members
and customers because employees who feel
appreciated and fairly treated take better
care of one another and your customers. Ken
Blanchard said, ‘The one thing your competition can never steal from you is the relationship you have with your people and the relationship they have with your customers.’

What is the basis for a good relationship-building strategy?

There are three keys to positive relationships, including building trust, accentuating
the positive and redirecting the energy when
mistakes are made. To build trust, your team
should perceive that you mean no harm. For
this to happen, you need to be visible, with a
physical presence. Another key is to make
yourself known by sharing some personal
experience with your followers and engaging them in meaningful dialogue. And you’ve got
to follow up this dialogue by maintaining
consistency between your words and your
deeds. Finally, the best leaders are always
asking themselves, ‘How can I help people
grow?’ You’ve got to create a framework to
educate and train in a scenario that allows
risks and encourages experimentation.

Should leaders focus on improving negative
behavior or accentuating the positives?

One of the most effective ways to improve
negative behavior is to focus on positive
behavior. You absolutely need to accentuate
the positives, with the mindset of catching
people doing things right or at least almost
right. You first may need to undo your
‘gotcha’ history. Do you make time to talk?
Do you thoroughly explain the changes you
wish to make? And are you patient with yourself and others?

The groundwork for effective praising
starts with immediately telling people exactly what they did right or almost right, why
you care, and what the impact of their
actions was. This also is a great time to ask
why they did it and learn their motivation.
Finally, encourage them to keep up the good work and remember that the reward for
good work should not be more work.

How should leaders respond to mistakes?

Leaders often struggle with this: How do
you redirect the energy when mistakes are
made? Discipline should be reserved for
‘won’t do’ behavior, not ‘can’t do’ behavior.
Positive consequences and sustainability
strategies are important because 85 to 90 percent of what impacts future behavior comes
from consequences — what happens after
somebody does something. Leaders need to
learn that sustaining performance requires
learning the effect of four consequences: No
response, negative response, positive response and redirection. We find that most
leaders focus on the first two, when the biggest impact really comes from the last two.

How is behavior best redirected?

It’s important to describe the error or problem as soon as possible — clearly and without blame — and describe to them the negative impact of their actions. If it’s appropriate,
take the blame for not making the task clear.
Go over the task in detail and make sure it is
clearly understood, and express your continuing trust and confidence in the person’s ability to master the task.

What are proven ‘best boss’ activities for
leading people to be their best?

Try looking back at how you became the
leader you are today. Think of a person you
believe was your best boss and ask yourself
what made that person your best boss. Did
he provide tools and resources? Did he praise
and recognize? Was she a visionary? Did she
challenge you? This person may have had
those and many other admirable qualities,
but if you look more closely, you will realize
he or she genuinely cared about you as a person, not only as an employee. The journey to
improving relationships and leading people
to be their best may not always be easy, but it
will surely be worth it when they look back
and remember you as their best boss.

ANN PHILLIPS is a senior consulting partner with The Ken Blanchard Companies in San Diego. Reach her through The Ken Blanchard
Companies Web site at www.kenblanchard.com/phillips.