Is your boss a prison warden or a party host - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog

Is your boss a prison warden or a party host - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog Heres a scary tale from the real world: When I was just starting out as a legal secretary, I worked for two lawyers who I referred to as Good Boss and Evil Boss. Evil boss would never look for a file he would yell for me to immediately find a particular FILE which would be on his desk where he kept all of his working files. In addition he would go through my in-box after I had left the office and rearrange the stack, move his work up and add new post-it notes with different deadline dates. Three drafts to any document was the absolute minimum, and he often wanted to see the previous drafts for him to check my work. Consequently, my wastepaper basket was very organized. Source The old leadership style of Im the boss, you must do whatever I say is being challenged by a different style which is more about supporting people to let them create results. While the old leadership style reminds me mostly of a prison warden, exercising absolute power over his wards, the new leadership role is completely different. Its about making people like their jobs. Its about realizing that people are in fact free to leave at any time. In short, the new leadership style reminds me much more of the host of a party. Heres how the two roles compare: Prison warden Party host Treats employees like prison inmates Treats employees like valued guests Decides when people arrive and how long they stay Invites people they decide whether to show up and for how long Orders must be followed to the letter Cant tell my employees what to do Harshly punishes wrongdoers Focuses on acknowledgment and fun Thinks employees must be watched or they dont perform Knows employees want to do good work Is in control Creates the setting employees create the actual content Work is a deadly serious matter Work is a lot of fun Wants to control you Wants you to succeed The good thing is that the prison wardens in the business world are being hit hard by Leadership Darwinism and are slowly losing their followers to better, more modern leaders. Theyre left with only those employees who enjoy this treatment or those without the drive or the skills to find new jobs. Its all about freedom So good leadership is like hosting a party. Why is that? The answer is freedom. I believe that freedom is a basic condition of life. We are (mostly) free to choose. When you go to a party, nobody can tell you what to do. Nobody can tell you what to think. Every time somebody gives you an order, you decide whether to carry out that order or not. You make the choice. If people tried to give you orders, youd quickly leave and probably never attend that particular persons party again. If you accept that we are free to choose, and that nobody can give anybody orders, then any order becomes instead an invitation. Do this is then the same as I invite you to do this, but you choose whether or not to do it. And this means that the leader is now a host, who has invited somebody to work towards some goal. This is also true at work. Your boss has only as much power over you as you grant him. The only power your boss truly has over you is the power to fire you. Take away this power, and youre free. Here are a few ways to do just that: Live a low-rent life. Control your fixed expenses so that being fired is not an immediate financial disaster. Increase your skills so it will be easier for you to find a new job. Remind yourself that quitting or being fired from a bad job or a bad manager is not embarassing. Remember that sometimes losing a bad job is the best thing that can happen to a person. Remember how much more fun it is to be happy at work and then find a job you can love. So if your boss is of the prison warden variety, its time to get out of Cell Block D and go work for a boss who knows how to make work fun. If you liked this post Im pretty sure youll also enjoy these: The top 10 advantages of low-rent living How to handle jerks at work The need for structure Thanks for visiting my blog. If you're new here, you should check out this list of my 10 most popular articles. And if you want more great tips and ideas you should check out our newsletter about happiness at work. It's great and it's free :-)Share this:LinkedInFacebookTwitterRedditPinterest Related