Leadership TIPS

17 signs that you are working for a toxic, non-loving boss:

1. Do you fear going into his/her office for any reason?
2. Do you look forward to Friday more than Monday?
3. Are you stressed by worrying that your boss might be dissatisfied with your work?
4. Does everybody on the unit fear the boss?
5. When was the last time you saw a smile from your boss? What made him/her smile? Was it because of a victory by you, or him/her?
6. When you did a truly exceptional job at something, what was the boss’s reaction? Were you rewarded you? Did he/she say “good job”?
7. Does he/she curse a lot? Insult the staff?
8. Has your boss ever complemented you for anything? How long ago was that?
9. Do you have any idea what it would take to get promoted with this boss? Has anybody in the unit been promoted?
10. Have there been many people who have quit recently?
11. Do the associates in the group talk about leaving?
12. Does your boss allow people to transfer out?
13. Has your boss fired people you thought were really great performers?
14. Does your boss do nothing but criticize you, and not give you feedback as to how you can improve?
15. How long has your boss been in the job? Has he/she been promoted into his/her role recently? If so, do you sense he/she is willing to learn, or does he/she have a closed mind about how things are to be done?

16. Does your boss tend to be mostly negative? Is he/she sarcastic and always unhappy?
17. Has your boss provided you with nothing but criticism? Has he/she ever said you did something right?

Tips on How to Lead with Love

There are some simple rules to follow:

• The obvious is stay away from liking
• The not-so-obvious, stay away from disliking
• Always address behavior problems early and directly
• Never let the problem go because you think it will go away
• Have the conversation, and then stay on top of the feedback process constantly
• Check with the team to be certain you know if they are being fair, and giving the other party the opportunity to modify behavior
• Evaluate the team’s reactions to your efforts
• Consistently engage discussion with the problem performer and how they think they are doing; continuous feedback is the only chance you have to modify behavior
• Admit that associates behavior problems are difficult to fix, hence do not wait too long; if the improvement does not happen quickly, then move quickly.

Leadership Tips

What not to do when doing a termination:

1.Never blame the termination on somebody else. If you are the boss, then take responsibility for the decision. If you do not, you will be seen as a fraud, because your employee will realize that it was your call.

2.Never make promises you can not keep. Like, “Do not worry, I will find you another job.” There is no way that you should put yourself in a position where the next job is yours to find, that will unfortunately be entirely up to the terminated employee.

3.Be careful about promises of a letter of recommendation. You need to be certain that your company will allow that.

4.Be just as careful about any references you give that might be negative. These can be damaging to you and your company. Your company probably has a policy on this. Check with your HR department.

5.Do not allow the person to think that the decision can be reversed. It is highly unusual when a company terminates an employee, and the reverses it because of some other conversation.

6.Never lie about the reason. If they were terminated for performance issues, you should tell them that. You can not be a Lead with Love boss if you lie to them about why they list their job. Indeed, you need to tell them what the issues were, and suggest that they get help to avoid them in the future.

7.Never “bad mouth” your company, or any of the management. You are the boss, you must be supportive of the company. If you can not, then you need to consider resigning and working somewhere else.