By Kunal Arora:
Having a difficult boss can be a boon if one is willing to look beyond their ways of dealing and working. Most of the people sitting at our head are there because they have dealt with what we are dealing for years. Veiled under all these negativities is a person who knows how to handle multitudes of work, influx of meetings, and time-bound challenges. They make us work the way they want to and get the best out of us even when we are doing it halfheartedly.
These are the 10 things I learned from the belligerent bosses I worked with and have compiled them for you so that you don’t miss them.
1. They never ever gossip about their bosses in front of anyone:
You won’t see them in groups talking about how cunning their boss is; instead, they are rarely seen in a group. They are fun and humorous when they move out for a stroll and look chilled out most of the time. Gossiping about your boss could be a threat to personal development and you hold a risk of maligning oneself. Stop it right away.
2. They are the best observers in office:
They notice you all the time. The time you enter office, took first break, how much time you spend reading the assignments and even the time you stay in washrooms. Nothing misses their curious eyes. This observation gives them command to keep a track of work and detail orientation which is must to be in a leader.
3. They are mysterious:
Dale Carnegie and Robin Sharma wrote their mastery books about leaders who are mysterious and most of them really are. It isn’t easy for a team to understand the psychology of their boss and work out what he/she will demand from the team. Sometimes they get berserk over petty issues and sometimes a catastrophe doesn’t move them a dot beyond calm. This can be understood as viewpoint issue, what you might seem important is actually not, leaders know which mistakes are worthy of their attention.
Like their disposition, it is not easy to understand why they talk about the future, most of the leaders know how important it is to keep failures in mind and then work out to get rid of all errors which might arise due to misguidance. They push you to do error free work as most of the errors are difficult to detect once they are done.
5. They get personal with you for a reason:
Mostly cunning bosses avoid having any personal conversation within the team; even the team’s personal conversation doesn’t sound healthy to them. But if the boss is getting personal with you, there is a hidden reason behind it. Arrogant bosses get close to those whom they see as a critical resource or the ones who are useless, they try to know what’s stopping you from working with your best potential. Many fall prey to this as they open up easily thinking their boss is friendly. But remember, leaders have a reason always.
6. They work while you relax:
There is a reason why you were not hired as a manager or for the position which your boss has. If you think this man/woman is mad as they never take breaks, then you are mistaken. Bosses make the most out of their time when they are working. While you might sip a cup of coffee and whine about what’s happening wrong they focus on their work and get more skilled. They are on top because they made their way from thousands waiting for promotions.
7. They are the best entertainers:
They most likely love to organize and throw parties more than you. They might appear to be boring and living a monotonous life but in reality, they might entertain themselves more than you do.
8. They never need reason for your vacations:
Bosses who work to get the best out of their teams never ask for reasons why you need a vacation, instead, they want you to relax and come back with full vigor to work hard and get things done but this happens only when they see you working for betterment else no reason can satisfy them.
You think they have no life other than office and what they do is work, work, and work. No doubt they are disciplined but years later when you will see your life going steady with less opportunity then you will understand why your bosses were so punctual and maintained decorum. Discipline is what makes them sit levels higher than you are at.
10. They are making you a leader better than themselves:
They poke you throughout the day, make you rework on numerous projects and ask you to think out of the box so that you can learn more and be better than them. Who doesn’t want the workload to reduce by creating a potential resource within the team who can work out errors and makes the task at hand easy? Also, you learn what to avoid and should not be included in your personality.
Every boss is a book of knowledge, they can be the best mentors and the phase of your life where you crib about them is actually the phase where you can learn the most.