Key Performance Indicators Of Good Leadership

Guest post from DR. GREG ALSTON:

"Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked; leadership is defined by results not attributes.

"- Peter Drucker"

This quote by one of the most respected management theorists of the last 100 years crystallizes the essence of how to determine whether someone is a good leader or not. Good leaders find a way to get the job done. Great leaders find a way to get their team to perform better than they thought was possible and to succeed despite their shortcomings. Good people like to join good companies run by good leaders. Unfortunately good people also leave good companies because of a bad manager. And bad managers infect every organization. A bad leader is identified by his ability to destroy the effectiveness of his team. A BossHole is that particularly bad manager who sucks the joy, life, energy and enthusiasm out of their organization. "The BossHole Effect" is what happens to a company run by a poor leader. Instead of performing high quality work that adds value to the economy they do uninspired mediocre work. Instead of providing great customer service that inspires customers to sing their praises they do sloppy inattentive work that annoys their customers. These BossHole managers are the arrogant, irritating, snarky people who make good people want to quit even though they like the company.

Here are ten ways you can tell the difference between a BossHole and a good boss:

1. When a good boss does something stupid he will acknowledge the screw-up, apologize for his error and fix it. BossHoles never think anything is their fault and they never apologize because in their imaginary world they are never wrong.

2. Good bosses normally ask you to do something for them and only occasionally tell you what to do. BossHoles never ask, they always tell. And they demand that you to stop whatever you are doing to get it done for them regardless of what else you have to do.

3. Good bosses only hold meetings when they are necessary to move the team effort forward. Bad bosses hold meetings all the time so they can hear themselves speak. They do not respect their employee's time or efforts.

4. Good bosses' immediately correct poor performance in an employee before it has a chance to get out of hand. A BossHole ignores poor performance until it festers and becomes such a big deal that he has to belittle and demean someone in front of their peers.

5. A good boss knows that good people occasionally do bad things and need to be given a break. A BossHole thinks that all employees need to be micromanaged for them to be useful.

6. A good boss deflects praise for a job well done on to the efforts of his team and steps up to take the blame for any failure. A BossHole takes credit for anything good that happens and deflects the blame for any failure on to his team.

7. A good leader finds a way to inspire average people to perform at a championship caliber level. A BossHole finds a way to demoralize above average people to perform mediocre work.

8. A good leader builds consensus and inspires his team to new heights. A BossHole creates a culture of infighting, back biting sabotage of the team's effort.

9. A good leader leads from in front a BossHole drives from behind.

10. A good leader won't allow his team to fail. A BossHole won't allow his team to succeed.

After 35 years of research in to the key performance indicators of leadership success a new tool has been developed to allow employees to quickly and easily identify BossHole behavior. The BossHole Rating scale describes 5 different categories of Boss. These are: Great Boss, Good Boss, Partial BossHole, BossHole and Complete BossHole. The leadership dimensions assessed focus on the unmistakable behaviors that signal good and bad leadership behavior. Anyone can use the Boss Rating system to rate a current or former boss using the Rate Your Boss Tool or they can rate themselves using the separate Rate Your Self as a Boss Tool.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:Dr. Greg L. Alston is the developer of the Boss Rating System and the Best Selling author of, "The BossHole Effect, Three Simple Steps Anyone Can Follow to Become a Great Boss and Lead a Successful Team." He has owned and operated a variety of businesses, worked for hundreds of bosses and supervised thousands of employees. His no nonsense approach and clear informal teaching style will teach you how to Coach others, Command respect, and Create an environment in which your team can thrive. Leadership is not a personality trait; it is a way of acting. Great leaders build great teams. Great teams achieve great things. The call to leadership is a call to action and this action begins when you buy and read his book.