Re:80% of us hate our boss: what to do
by ojbyrne on Tuesday July 01, 2008 @02:40PM
(#233294)
As someone who's about to start a job as a "boss", I'm going to take "Even if we went to business school, that was two years spent, long-long ago." to heart. Wishing for an article like "80% of your employees hate you: what to do"
[ Parent
| on HN ]
Management is a social activity, so you will have to embrace social interaction. Rule #1 is to actively encourage feedback. The difficult part is not getting upset but acting on opportunity when you are told where you screwed up. You'll get over it. It will take some time (6-12 months) before people will be comfortable with telling you what they think, and they will start with small things. Make sure to follow up on these by either addressing or making it obvious that feedback was given serious consideration. Everybody likes beign listened to. Be prepared for the first 6-12 months beign very awkward. It's ok.
One trick I learned from my boss is to ask people two questions: "how could we make this better?" and "how could we make this worse?". It's important to ask both questions as this creates proper frame around conversation. It also avoids the whole conversation beign 100% "negative".