ARTICLE: BOSSGIRI

Copyright@shravancharitymission

By Kamlesh Tripathi

    The word ‘boss’ is perhaps the most dreaded word in any company. We all deal with various kinds of bosses in our career. I too have dealt with many in the past. And, the very word as if pyramids seamlessly on words like the ‘leader’ and the ‘coach’ as if it is God gifted to the hierarchy—the Boss. But that is certainly not the case.

    In my long career, I too worked with a variety of bosses where each boss had his own SWOT to mull. I often pondered if the boss is a collective strength of his subordinates, his qualification, his talent and experience. And in the same ratiocination what is the subordinate then? But answers were not quite visible.

    In the long corporate saga of every executive, that keeps un-folding, from time to time it will be interesting to observe the type of bosses you come across. Some bosses are oven-baked with qualities of leadership and are excellent coaches. They are not stuck-up on hierarchy; and are devoid of any hangover about their tall qualification, wide experience and seniority. But a majority of bosses may not be like this.

    During my long innings, I interfaced various kinds of bosses. I also took adequate pains to study the bosses of my colleagues and always kept an eye on my boss’s boss and never deviated from keeping my focus on the top boss, from where, actually, the culture of the organisation flowed.

    Often HR granularly defines the KRAs of each functionary in the company but the gray area remains—the delicate relationship between the boss and the subordinate as there is always something ‘intra’ about it.

    A successful boss is a person who can extract the maximum out of the ambience in the given environment. And for that to happen optimum tuning is required with the team. But, sadly some bosses only keep cribbing about the capabilities of their subordinates. Conversely subordinates tend to perform better if the boss is approachable and can add value in problem solving and for sure possesses the art of debottlenecking. This requires both soft skills and talent and bosses who don’t have this in abundance, usually confine themselves to isolation.  

    While dealing with your boss try and get to know more about the behavioural side of him. For all you know he might have feudalistic tendencies in him where he might consider you more of a constituent then a co-worker. Such bosses are like tyrants and they prefer sycophancy to merit. One can call them feudal bosses. Then there are some bosses who are soft by nature and don’t demand too much out of you, nor reprimand you, but they never ever do anything for you considering your worthiness. One can christen them as frigid bosses.

    The third variety are the ones who give their subordinates enough space to move around and train on the job, but do not extend a helping hand in training you; but overall they are concerned about you and have a magnanimous heart. They are also open to learning from you on a selective basis.

    But the most spectacular variety, are the ones who not only demand work out of their subordinates, but also keep coaching them to perform better. They also have the talent to train you on the job in case you are not skilled to perform the task. This is the prized catch: Boss+talent+coach.

    In this digital and high-tech world where talent is replacing experience every moment, the line between the boss and the subordinate is only getting hazier. There is need for bosses to move from ‘Bossgiri’ to a talent retentive boss.

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