Do you boss, or do you guide? That is the question. A boss who everyone hates will soon get fired, or the workers will quit. So, as a boss, you have to be nice and personable. In India, it is fashionable to yell at your workers. Sometimes this is necessary if they are being stubborn or insubordinate. But, you should not yell at workers who generally try to do their best. With the moderate or good workers, you need to function more as a guide.
You guide workers, teach them, develop them and bring out their best. If you are a successful boss, putting aside how wonderful your salary is, your workers will say, “Wow, that boss brought things out from within me that I never knew existed!”. Bringing out the best in people will not only make people like you, they will respect you with awe. So, we all need to rethink our role as a leader, and become better at it. There is a lot to learn about being a leader.
So, the secret to being a good boss lies in knowing when to teach workers new things, or when to give them new projects. You have to know how much to guide them in their projects and when to leave them alone. Strategy exists at all stages in the road. Keeping a written road map of what you are doing with a particular worker makes a big difference. That way you can keep track with a glance. By my standards, a worker has to put in some hard time to deserve your scarce time and attention. But, once they have paid their dues, give them some teaching and coaching that will make them become an expert at some facet of your business, or at a particular task. Guide them to mastery and then complement them in a “wow” kind of way. “Wow, I can’t believe how good you are at that — just a week ago you could barely pick up the phone and look at you now!”. This type of “shock and awe” strategy is really a sales strategy. If you amaze prospective clients, they will be very likely to buy from you and only you. But, the same applies to employees. If you amaze employees with what you can bring out of them, they will hold you in a type of regard fit only for a guru or a king (or a god if you are in India).
So, remember, the goal is to take calculated steps that make everybody involved say, “Oh my god(s)”. If in a Muslim environment, a simple “W’allahi” or “Mash’allah” will do the trick as well when your worker outshines the group. If not, then you need to regroup, and come up with a better strategy for guiding your people! If you get really good at this, then your employees will flock around you like you are Jesus walking from town to town in the areas West of the Jordan! Imagine!