The successful boss's first 100 days

Dear friends,

Today is the first day with lot's of sunshine, I am enjoying a few days of work. A lot going on at the moment.  My boss is leaving the company. I've got mixed feelings about his departure; on the one hand I am happy for him. On the other hand pitty for our team. Our boss was generous, kind, gentle and our biggest supporter. He was the boss who always took the blame and covered our backs on several occassions. He literally was a soft cushion between the management and our team . The management estimated him as too soft towards his team. Not capable to enforce the necessary actions that could lead to more results and more success. 
What did we miss in our boss or did we miss out on something?

Reading the book of Richard Koch 'the successful boss's first 100 days', I again realise how challenging this job can be.
How important it is to invest in your team, company and clients. And how crucial it is to prepare and take the necessary actions in the first 100 days. Knowng your team members, taking the right decisions on who is on board and who's out, What is your mission and your objectives and how to prepare your team for success and eventually how to avoid pitfalls. It is a practical and easy to read book and very interesting even when you are not the new boss. Hereby some background information tips and how to get the most from your boss.

Why the boss matters

At one level, it is an observable fact that anyone who has become really successful has had at least one boss who themselves has been distinguished in whatever the field is, whether business, sport, entertainment, or academia. Not all people who work for a successful boss become successful, but nearly everyone who has become successful has worked for one or more successful bosses, and made good use of them.

What Kind of Boss Are You Looking for?

• Someone who is going places but has not yet arrived.  They must be up-and-coming.  They already display evidence of rising fast.  Their influence is growing.  They already have momentum.


• They make a habit of promoting their prot\'e9g\'e9s.  They take care of the underlings who have served them well.  They believe in patronage.  Most really successful bosses have this trait, but not all.  Some are only interested in themselves.  Avoid them.

• They take time to explain what they are doing, and why.  Again, it is human trait to want to share your wisdom and insight if you have it (and often if you do not).  Most successful bosses are crafty as well as talented, and they are good at upward reporting.  They make their bosses happy, and select bosses who are also going places.  As well as being crafty, most successful bosses have evolved a distinctive bag of tricks \'96 sometimes only one trick, but that is often the best that enable them to cut through complexity and frustration like a knife through butter. They know how to achieve with relatively little effort, money, or people.  But they do need one or a few acolytes to help make them even more successful.  To use acolytes well, you have to give them an apprenticeship.  You have to explain what you are doing, and why.

• They like you.  Who knows why?  Maybe they see similar traits in you real or imaginary that they believe they have.  Maybe they admire your brain, or your looks.  They like your personality.  They like your willingness to serve.  They may even like your abilities but don't count on it, and happily you don't have to.  It doesn't matter why they like you, just that they do.

• You like them.  Again, it is obvious we generally like the people who like us.   If you really like your boss, it will be clear; and also if you dont.

• You believe you can learn from them.   If you don't, you won't.  This means that you must genuinely admire the boss as well as like them.  They must know something that you don't, and want to know.

When it comes to bosses, go for the very best you can get.  Don't settle for a good but not great boss.

How to Get the Most from the Boss

• Spend time with them.  Most people tend to avoid the boss, but the way to learn from a great boss is by osmosis you absorb it from the air around them, by seeing what they do and how they do it.  You cant observe them if you're not there.  Try to engineer social time with them driving to a meeting, a business trip, or a work-related semi-social event.  Measure how much time you spend in their office, and try to increase it.

• Work out why they are going places.  What is their secret?  What do they know or do that lesser mortals dont.  Learn from them and especially their short-cuts  what they do effortlessly and extremely well.  It may be as simple as their being willing to make decisions or take risks, or it may be that they make the right decisions most of the time.  How do they do that?

• Help them go new places fast.   What can you do to help the boss in his or her own career?  This may be hard to figure out, but it is one of the few hard things that is worth doing.

• Get them to invest in helping you.  This is usually implicit in the boss-subordinate relationship, where the boss is great.

• Disagree with them.  Not always, not often, but sometimes.  If you really think they are wrong, express your view respectfully but as persuasively as you can.  Great bosses respect that, and it may lead you to a higher synthesis maybe the boss is partly right, and you too have a piece of the puzzle, so you actually help the boss.  Even if you are completely wrong, and the boss explains why, you will have learned something.  But only do it on important matters, where the disagreement can lead to better results.

Business is inherently social, and the social, intellectual, and subjective elements of boss-dom and subordinate-dom are massively important.  Though obvious, they are usually neglected.  Choosing your bosses and following them to success and then helping your key people do the same is not only one of the most effective ways to get ahead, but also one of the most pleasurable.

http://richardkoch.net/2016/01/what-matters-is-the-boss/