In the work environment, all experiences help us to learn, to differentiate right from wrong, to obtain knowledge that is not acquired in schools and universities.
As employees, we have had to relate to some people who occupy a position of power within the work team, we call these people bosses.
Among the functions of the boss are to coordinate the work team to define objectives, and must also be a leader who encourages communication and can make decisions at critical moments.
I present my very specific experiences with some good bosses and some very bad ones:
The Good Bosses.
As an Accounting Assistant I had a very memorable boss of whom I remember that he loved his job, he adored it, he did it with passion. He supervised and corrected us, taught us with a lot of patience, gave us advice on how to do a better job, and we were paid very well for the extra hours we dedicated to the company. This person got along very well with other departments besides accounting, and always kindly got what he wanted.
If we his employees made any mistakes he would reprimand us, but always in good terms and we would participate in the correction in order to learn from our mistakes.
As a Credit Analyst I had to share with a very authoritarian boss, hard and firm in giving orders, in a place where quick decisions had to be made. Although he was very demanding with others, he was also very demanding with himself.
But when goals and objectives were achieved, we were recognized for our effort and work.
As a Credit Officer and Manager my immediate superior motivated the team, we had very productive meetings that led the team to achieve goals and objectives.
He highlighted their creativity and difficulties were treated as a challenge, he knew the team well and knew how to identify our strengths and weaknesses, in this way he took advantage of the best qualities and skills of each member to achieve the common goal.
Lessons learned.
I have to say that with these managers I learned that a good manager tends to recognize his strengths and weaknesses, assuming what he can do for the organization and delegating activities in which he does not have enough experience or skill.
He has the ability to be empathetic, discusses diverse points of view and becomes a point of support for the team, does not resort to public scorn by not exposing the failures of others. He is the first to take responsibility because he knows that the team is in his charge.
Inspires confidence in his team by gaining the respect of his teammates, who feel comfortable performing their tasks knowing that their effort is recognized and valued.
These people encourage their colleagues to continue to grow professionally and personally.
The Bad Bosses.
As Assistant Manager of Products and Services I had an invisible boss, nobody knew where I was, when I went to the Banking Agency he gave orders and disappeared, he did not work as a team, many times I had to appeal to the Standards and Procedures Manual to read and learn some guideline related to my duties. It was like working on a drifting ship with no direction. The few times I saw him assign tasks that had nothing to do with the duties inherent to our position.
As an Auditor I interacted with a boss who sent an endless list of tasks, who enjoyed giving orders interrupting the work team constantly, asking to redo jobs without any explanation.
I must say that he was not interested in lifting the spirits of others, transmitting insecurity, instability and stress. He was a very dramatic person who exaggerated the problems and paid attention to himself and not to the business difficulties.
For no reason he called the attention of the staff and at least I never saw him do it directly with the person who committed a fault, according to his point of view, he always did it in the presence of other people who were not involved in the problem.
As an Administrator I had a tense relationship where I didn't know what to expect from the boss. He was both your friend and your worst enemy, capable of changing his mind in less than five minutes, blaming others for his mistakes and repeating a script that I had already seen in another job: the mistreatment of an employee in the presence of other team members.
We did not know what to expect from this emulation of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. He would give us very expensive gifts but if for any reason you opposed him or disagreed with a policy he used to take it away or ask for it the hard way. He was always stressed, he was sleep deprived, he was diabetic and he used to alter all the work plans of his subordinates. In short, we are in the presence of a bipolar boss, which I believe is the most dangerous of all.
Lessons learned.
From these experiences I can say that bad bosses, by not communicating clearly with their work teams, do not make clear what their expectations are, do not know how to delegate and do not feel empathy towards their subordinates. Thus, the potential that each one of us can exploit and contribute to solve problems in the company is lost because we do not feel motivated and we fail to identify ourselves with the organization. In all cases, they are incapable of accepting that they make mistakes, but they do not tolerate the mistakes of others in the work environment. The bad boss limits your growth, makes your work more complicated and makes people feel lost in the company.
I believe that we learn from both good and bad experiences, it is easy to take a lesson from a good experience, but we must be able to get something fruitful from the bad ones and try not to repeat the mistakes we have seen in our bosses.
I say goodbye in this opportunity, thanking you all for the attention given and the opportunity to express my experiences and opinions in relation to the work environment, greetings to all, I hope to read your comments.
