4 Questions for the Boss
Haaaaappy Friday,
The person you work for can be more important than the organization you choose. Probably is.
Engineering organizations, large or small, naturally offer ample opportunities for personal growth, impact, fulfillment, and self-actualization. It’s a truly wonderful feature of this profession, making it difficult to choose a wrong organization to work for. The biggest variable affecting your career growth, impact, fulfillment, and self-actualization is the person you work for and their priorities.
People, and that includes leaders, prioritize what they’re incentivized to prioritize. So what are your boss’s incentives? Is it to be an excellent leader, inspirational, motivational, and to actively develop the capabilities and careers of the people they lead? Is it to manage people and processes to deliver on metrics? Maybe both?
I’ve never met a leader who wasn’t a good person at heart. But incentives do influence their actions nonetheless. If an organization doesn’t explicitly prioritize good leadership, then even the best leaders will face the risk that their actions and priorities may be second-guessed. Most will avoid that and go along with what's expected.
The written expectations and incentives used to guide and compensate leaders reveal the organization's priorities and foretell what kind of leadership you can expect from your boss.
So before accepting a new job (or maybe at your next annual review), ask these four questions to find out if your boss is a leader empowered to prioritize you and your career, or a manager of people and processes to deliver a bottom line:
- Are leaders here expected to be good at leadership? What exactly are the leadership expectations?
A. Are the expectations explicit or just broad generalizations (ugh…)?
- Are leaders here incentivized to be good at leadership? What are the specific leadership incentives?
A. Do the incentives explicitly address leadership actions and aptitude, or are they generalized or performance/outcome-based?
- Do you know your team’s employee engagement score? What is it, and what actions are you taking to improve your team leadership?
A. The engagement score is effectively the boss’s leadership score. Better leadership, better engagement, better bottom line.
- How would you describe your leadership style?
A. This is an opportunity for your new or current boss to show how much they care about being a good leader. Listen closely to how knowledgeable, sincere, and genuine they are, then trust your gut.
People being 'our greatest asset' isn't the flex organizations think it is. Assuming people work hard and do their part, they'd also like their organization and boss to be great assets for them.
Organizations spend a lot of time and money telling the world how great it is to work there. ‘Come work for us, we’re proud and thrilled…!’ But every organization is equally proud and thrilled. So working here or there sounds pretty much the same. How does an org stand out?
The goal is to attract, AND retain, and motivate the industry’s best people. So to stand out, tout leadership excellence that focuses on people's career growth, impact, fulfillment, and self-actualization. Make truly great leaders and leadership your organization’s defining feature. Everyone's thrilled, but nobody’s claimed the great leadership space, and that's precisely what smart people want most…and where they'll want to stay.
Have a great weekend!
Dave
Eyes remain on the macro economy and AI
Feedback and blowback are always welcome: dave@goodnewsfriday.com
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