Good boss, bad boss by Bob Sutton

A very interesting book and lecture from Bob Sutton about leadership and what makes the difference between a good boss and a bad boss.

In this book Bob defines a good boss and someone that people likes to work with him, it doesn't really matter if the numbers of the company are excellent or if the leader actually makes more money per year., what is important is that the people that he leads will want to work and continue working with him. Don't misunderstand this as a poor performers.

Starting with the facts that you will actually increase your chances to live longer (because bosses are the most stressful part of most jobs) to the fact that with the right influence people can perform better.

Across the book, Bob mentions a series of examples and ideas to improve your influence over people, what traps to avoid and how to be a good boss.

These are some of the ideas that were given during the lecture:

• A good boss have a moderate assertiveness. As a leader you most know where the team is heading and you must be able to select what to do and what not to do If you made a mistake you must be able to retake the route.
• A leader must be able to get real information from his subordinates. I know it sounds easy but it is actually hard because we tend to kill the messenger, so people will tend to tell you only good news.
• A leader must be able to set an environment where people feel confident to share their ideas and fight for it. Everyone can have a great idea, if  they can actually talk about it, you must protect those that are sensitive to rejected ideas and encourage people to put ideas over the table every time they can.
• It is better when you break things down to smaller tasks. People will always feel better when they feel that they are moving forward and that they are actually accomplishing something. Note to myself:. I'm realizing that this goes hand on hand with the fact that you need to break down things to small task in your project plan to create a better estimation (if a task takes longer than 4 weeks, maybe it is time to break it down)
• Smart talk trap: Avoid the smart talkers, people that will just talk about how things should be done but they don't actually execute it, this people is not useful to the organization.
• If you made a mistake it is better if you accept it, show that you have learn and implement a solution.
• The toxic tandem: Leaders have the attention of their let's call followers, but people will imitate the behavior of the leader, some times leaders will just try to ignore and do whatever they want (including some misbehavior just because they are leaders) you must watch out for this, this will also be imitated by your followers. The problem is that eventually some leaders tend to ignore this, be careful.
• Power, when you are the leader you have the power to make certain decisions the problem with this is that people with power tends to focus on themselves and pay little attention to others which leads to poor decision making.
• A great phrase I got from the lecture is: Debate, decide and deliver. In an open environment it is probable that you will find situations where two people have similar ideas but they can't decide which one take this must exist for a successful company but what it is more important is that you must not focus on keep fighting, you must focus on delivering.
• In a small team a bad resource can ruin your team for a 30% to 40%. That's why I think that the process of hiring new people must be done carefully (remember it is easier to kick someone out when you are in this part)