What’s Your BOSS Like?

I regularly hear that workers leave because of the attitudes and behaviors of the boss. WHY is BOSS like that? HOW are they behaving? WHAT are they able to accomplish if people are leaving? The older I get, the more I appreciate the importance of psychology. Listening to the various team players, coaches, and media personnel for the college football playoffs, everyone talks about team spirit, grit, persistence. The best coaches are able to inspire their players to do everything they can. Some coaches stress fundamentals, both physical and mental. Some favor running strategies and others passing strategies. Some like to use trick plays. Those mindsets of the coaches and the players we call sports psychology, and you can even get a bachelor’s degree in the subject.

What about BP? I don’t mean your blood pressure which may go up under the stress put on you by your BOSS. I’m thinking the Business Psychology for your company. It involves the culture that is espoused as well as the one that actually exists. Does the company stress “Hail Mary” passes, or the fundamentals of good decision making, profits, and sustainable growth? Does the BOSS give inspiring speeches to the whole company, but chastise people for failing while attempting something that could pay out well?

I like to think of the BOSS as the Business Operating System Strategy for the company, all it’s managers, employees, contractors, and suppliers. To the customers, it is the culmination of what is considered your brand. I don’t think people leave a single boss so much as the BOSS of the company.

As you construct your BOSS, your Business Operating Strategy, look to align the 7 forces for business success and to incorporate it into a well constructed pyramid whose foundation is made of the values and culture of the company, combined with WHY the business exists.