Being a great boss is quite the task, there are many levels to being successful, personable and respected.  But it starts with basic principles – treat others like you’d want to be treated and lead by example.  When you are in a position of authority and spend time helping others develop their potential and reach their goals, you become a great boss.

Really get to know your team.

Spend time with your staff and get to know them.  By finding out what they like and what they don’t, you can help make them a better employee. Have someone who manages details well? Maybe they can help plan events.  Work with a chatterbox? Maybe they’d do well on your sales team.  When you learn about your employees, you prove that you’re interested and investing in them and they’ll want to be better employees for you.

Act like a leader and lead by example.

When you are a good boss, you understand that others are watching everything you do – from your staff, to your co-workers to you superiors.  You have the chance with each and every decision to lead by example and prove that you are the leader you say you are.  Remember to spend quality time with your employees and a focused effort on doing the job right.  Make good decisions with the small things and you’ll see how others will trust you with the large things.

Develop the potential you currently have.

I’ve spent much of my professional life with brand-new staff members.  They had potential, but not much else. Great! You know why? I can train process, tasks and procedures – but you know what is hard to develop? The desire to do a good job – the potential.  I always hire potential and work to develop the potential I currently have. I  trust my staff with big decisions, I train them to be confident in their actions and I reinforce good behavior and innovative thinking.  As a supervisor, you’re always going to have people who need work.  I hope you fully realize this; you’ll be better for it.

Interviewing is more about listening.

I love to interview. Love it. And I’ve realized in my many years of interviewing there are tips for the interviewees and tips for hiring managers.  As a hiring manager, I’ve noticed that during many interviews, it seems more like a conversation (for me as the hiring manager) than it does an interview.  This is because listening is an important interview skill.  I ask a question, listen to the answer and ask another question based on the answer.  I bring an interview questions list with me, but it’s usually a back-up option for me.  The great news about listening-based interviews, is you can usually dig deeper in the interview to determine which candidate will be the best fit for your team.

Don’t let your personal life impact your employee’s professional life.

Have you ever met those people who bring every problem into work with them? It’s hard to have a supervisor with a bad day or a bad attitude because of their bad day.  Stop it right now.  As a supervisor, your personal life should never impact your employee’s professional life – it’s not fair to them and it’s not professional for you.  Leave your personal life at the door so when you arrive to work, no matter what happens, you’re able to focus on your job – developing your staff and getting your work done.  If it’s bad enough that you can’t, take the day off. Seriously.

There are many levels to being a good boss, but a great starting-point is to develop your team and lead as a professional. When you, as a boss, take your job seriously and make it interesting, you’ll notice your employees start to do the same thing. And that is great news for you, your team and your employer.