My blog

"There are many rude people in the world, and some become bosses," said Jack Welch, an outstanding American manager and CEO of General Electric, who died last year.

Apart from business owners, the unemployed and retirees, we all have a boss.

Your boss can be good or bad, talkative or closed and unapproachable, demanding or indulgent, fair or crooked, supportive or unhelpful. One thing is for sure – he has a significant impact on your life, at least in its professional aspect.

Should your boss know what you do? Some management experts say that you can manage anything, even if you are not a specialist in a given field. I think it is great to have a boss who understands what I do, and even if he has some real experience in my field. Unfortunately, this can be a trap. Sometimes bosses who know their subordinates' skills believe that only they can do their jobs well, and instead of supporting them, they start to hinder their subordinates from doing them. Such help can have disastrous effects, and a boss who thinks he knows best is a real tragedy.

The basis of every relationship is empathy. A boss should have the ability to empathize with the feelings of his subordinates. And even better when he recognizes and understands their motivations, motives and reasons. However, I think that empathy in the workplace should be approached with moderation. I know a very empathetic boss who relies too much on listening to the opinions of his subordinates and long, flowery explanations of decisions made, which are not necessarily the right ones.

Quite often our boss is a figurehead, a puppet, a puppet. You will not consult or arrange anything with such a person, you will not get any advice or support. From such a person you can only expect to be informed in due time. And you will have no doubt that the information you received from him comes from someone higher than your boss. Such bosses usually spend most of their time in the waiting room in front of their superior's office or pretending to be good bosses, which they do not succeed at all.

Who is a better boss: a woman or a man? In my opinion, it doesn't matter. Of course, statistically speaking, women are more empathetic, analytical and agreeable, and men are more strategic, aggressive and introverted, which is probably a simple consequence of the two hundred thousand years of history of homo sapiens on Earth, during which women were engaged in gathering and raising children, and men in hunting and war. However, these are just statistics, and although a world run mainly by women would certainly be better, today we have very few female bosses. After all, we live in a sexist country, where women have it much worse than men, because they live longer on smaller pensions, work less and save less for retirement, raise children and receive less money for the same work and qualifications, but they shouldn't complain, because their gallant men always compensate them for all this on March 8th.

An interesting case is the idiot boss. An idiot boss is usually nominated for the role by someone who also exhibits the characteristics of an idiot. An idiot boss usually goes with the flow, has trouble making decisions, and the directions of his actions are usually set by those who are the last to leave his office. Because you have to know how to manage an idiot boss.

Can a boss be a friend? Well. I think that the condition of a good friendship is equality between the parties. For example, a friendship between a parent and a child is marked by inequality, because a parent will always look at their child with the care of a parent, which results from blood ties, and a child will look at their parent through the prism of rebellion in youth or in the context of caring for an elderly parent. Similarly, at work, the boss-subordinate relationship will always have an adverse effect on a potential friendship, which in my opinion will never be a completely sincere and true friendship. It's good to have good relations with the boss, even social ones, but I wouldn't rush into this friendship.

So what should our boss be like for us to consider him a good boss? Probably each of us will have a slightly different opinion on this matter. For me, a good boss is one who talks to me, is able to listen to me and understand me. He acts based on principles and is fair. And most importantly, he is always, but always able to make the best, although not always good decision, which takes into account the right proportions between my interests, the boss's and the organization's.

I haven't had a boss for a few years now, because as they say I've gone to the other side of the looking glass. Before that, in my entire professional life, I had one boss. For twenty-two years. And I was lucky, because he was a good boss.