What Makes a Good or Bad Boss – 24 Best Qualities

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 Naijawapenews.blogspot.com 

In the professional life of every individual, if they aren’t in a position to become the boss in their office, they at least hope to have a good boss to work for. Having a good boss who is goal oriented, supportive and initiates coordination is one which every individual hope for.

There are two types of bosses employees encounter, a good boss, and a bad boss. The difference between a good boss and a bad boss and their individual traits needs to be understood.

What Makes a Great Boss?

Good bosses are people that every employee in this world wish to have in their workplace and would willingly work with or under such people. Every good boss knows the hard work that their employees put in, to meet the expectations and objectives of the company. The employees are rewarded and aren’t underpaid as they receive the true salary they deserve. Some of the main qualities of a good boss have been mentioned below.

Qualities of a Good Boss:

1. Initiates a clear vision:

Every employee would want to do their best at their job and make a difference for the organization. They would need their boss to communicate the clear vision that they have set which is what good bosses do. Setting the vision to meet the objectives of the company would get employees much more interested in helping the organization to achieve their goals.

2. Connects the vision with Daily tasks:

Great bosses make efforts to connect the vision of the organization with the daily tasks that every individual is performing. They demonstrate to the employees how there is a clear connection between the two. The connection can be brought by having smart goals which entirely helps in supporting the organization and it can help in business strategy planning.

3. Setting clear expectations:

A great boss would know their expectation level from new employees for the present and the future. So they will sit with the new employee on their first day itself in the workplace and will make them aware of the necessary priorities. They talk about past performance reviews and what they expect from the new employee. They set expectations and makes their employees aware of the outcomes that can be achieved, once such expectations are met.

4. Coaching:

Coaching is one of the most important things that a boss can give to their employees. Great bosses consider themselves as a leader and coach at the same time to provide motivation and encouragement for their team. They lead by example and they know the mind state of their employees. They identify when coaching would be needed and provide it with the least possible interference. They understand the difference between over-controlling and under-controlling a situation and act wiser to be a source of help at the moment.

5. Provides feedback:

Good bosses will provide feedback to their employees before reviewing their final feedback. They provide feedback especially negative feedback at the right time to their employees. This helps in establishing a long-lasting relationship between the two. Engaging in conversations leads to co-operation and presents the employee more time to try and rectify their mistake and ensure that it does not happen in the future.

6. Appreciates the efforts:

Appreciation is required by every employee in a company. Positive appreciation will help in keeping the person cheerful and bring more efficiency to their work. A good boss will share things about the work and appreciate the efforts that their workers are putting in. It is common sense to appreciate a person as it will help the individuals as well as the whole company.

7. Great work atmosphere:

Employees thrive on being treated as equals in the workplace and contribute their efforts equally to the team. Great bosses will create a positive work environment which will have qualities such as trust, respect, innovation, creativity, etc. Any employee would love such an environment and would flourish in such an atmosphere.

8. Interested in the employees:

Good bosses stop by to greet the employees and ask them how they are feeling. They are available for all employees and give their entire attention whenever employees need it. Good bosses also take a personal interest in the lives of an employee. They appreciate the employees every time which helps them in understanding the true behavior of the employee. This also increases the level of commitment for the work being performed by the employee.

9. Bosses share their personal information:

At times, great bosses who have entirely gained the trust of their employees may share their personal experiences of their life with them. They share their life struggles and how they overcame such challenges to be in the current position. It brings an even closer relationship between boss and employee and if the story has really inspired the employee then they consider their boss as their role model

10. Finding the hidden talents:

Great bosses observe their employees to truly identify their hidden talents. The boss will talk to their employees regarding the thing they enjoy the most at their job. They identify the instincts and true skills that employees possess and in turn bosses get their reward of seeing employee satisfaction. It also brings a level of self-inspiration and confidence within the individual. They identify their true skills and talents and also get the true appreciation they seek for.

11. Fearless in working:

Good and effective bosses will always encourage their employees in working fearlessly and worry less if they make any kind of mistakes. This fearless attitude will make the employee learn from their mistakes and not to repeat them. Fearless in work would present the person with opportunities of trying a new and different thing for that day.

12. Open and truthful:

Great bosses tend to be direct but also have sensitivity in their tone. As communication is essential, they would clearly give their opinion to the employees as soon as possible but in a kind way. Employees are encouraged rather than being threatened which keeps them aware of the truth and provides them with vital information to help them in the future.

13. Good bosses are made, not always born:

Most of the great people in this world are natural born leaders who have the quality of motivating, inspiring and leading their employees ahead. But others learn the behavioral pattern to be a successful and effective leader in the future. The traits that a person possesses within makes or can make them a great boss in the future. But at the same time, they need to develop such traits. They can develop and maintain such qualities by attending a number of management classes, attending seminars, and reading and through self-assessment.

14. Promotes team development:

A good boss knows the level of efficiency they can get from a well-functioning team of workers. For it to happen, any great boss would be a team leader and lead the employees to function as a team in harmony. The employees are unified and the boss ensures that everyone is heading in the same direction.

What Makes a Bad Boss?

A person may have found their dream job they have been looking for their entire lives. They have found their passion, a good salary package and excellent co-workers to work with. But there may be one major problem, a bad boss. This brings a huge negative impact on the person greatly to their professional lives and even at some level in their personal lives. There are some qualities which every person should know if they have a bad boss.

Qualities of a Bad Boss:

1. Communicates rarely and offensively:

Every good boss’s reputation is built on having a good team who are good at their job. This relationship between boss and subordinate is only achieved through effective communication. A bad boss would speak offensively and yell at their team which reduces the individual’s self-esteem as well as builds work pressure. Such bosses do not clearly instruct their team and do not communicate the correct details about the job of the person.

2. Fear within motivation:

Motivation is a key factor towards initiating the employee to work hard at their job. A bad boss will motivate less and threaten more. Bad bosses scare their employees by threatening to fire them from their job. With no signs of positive motivation, the employee loses hope in their boss and their job and faces a drawback in their career.

3. Desires complete control:

Employees are hired in a company as their qualifications and skills they possess have met the requirements for the job. While performing their job, a bad boss will pressurize the person every single time for every little thing. They wish to have complete control on the job someone else is doing. This hampers the person’s personal growth and they learn less about their job. They cannot perform their job or complete a specific project as per their wish.

4. Never takes the blame:

Bad bosses often tend to blame their employees and members of their team for the failures caused by the organization. It is very difficult for an employee to take blame for something which they haven’t even done. Bad bosses often tend to blame others for failures but take the entire credit for the accomplishments at the job. They never stick up for the team and spoil their relationship with their team.

5. Doesn’t consider someone else’s suggestions:

A boss has attained the position as a head because they are experienced and have the necessary skills for their new job. With respect to employees, the boss should now lead them towards attaining the goals of the organization. But this doesn’t mean that the boss is always right. A bad boss would not consider the suggestions that the employees are willing to offer and will perform the actions as per their wish.

6. Failure in properly performing the job:

A bad boss will not set a definite objective to meet the needs, vision, and mission of the company. They do not perform their job to the expected level and do not put in their part while completing the task at hand. At times, employees tend to work harder and more efficient than their senior boss.

7. Lack of guidance:

A new employee to the firm will require the right guidance to help them in their beginning weeks of the job. This guidance can only be obtained from their boss as they have the necessary experience. Bad bosses do not brief the individual properly about their job. They do not even check to find out whether or not everything is happening in an appropriate manner.

8. No firm vision or goal:

Bad bosses do not have a clear goal set in their head. If there is no clear vision then the boss cannot handle and lead their team. If the vision isn’t in line with the objectives of the company then too, the person is considered as a bad boss because the vision would only be for attaining individual success.

9. Ignores team-building activities:

Team building is important at every level in an organization. It helps in strengthening the relationship between employees and the company as a whole. Employees relieve their stress when they perform various team building exercises. But bad bosses do not prompt such activities.

10. Working hard with less compensation:

Every boss expects their employees to work harder and more efficient in every forthcoming task. But bad bosses do not give their workers the actual salary package they are looking out for. The quality and performance of work are much more than the reward or salary received for it.

There is an important difference between a bad boss and a good boss, a thin line. Every boss has their own status and it should be used for the benefit of the company and the employees. Every employee should get fair treatment and the respect that they deserve. This will only increase the productivity and efficiency of the person which will bring a sense of job satisfaction within the employee.

 

• Job Search
• Finding A Job
• Social Media

How to Use Google Alerts in Your Job Search Effectively?

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 nainaijawapenews.blogspot.com

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Jobs are in plenty. Even more, job websites are in plenty. So do you go on registering and searching jobs in all the websites? But all job openings are not listed in websites. When you apply for a job opening, how do you decide if the company is worth working for? There are hundred such questions which are all sorted through the Google Alerts.

Google Job Alerts – What are They?

These are nothing but the emails that Google sends to you when it searches and finds relevant information which you have told it to. So in case of job searches, it mails or sends alerts for job openings in areas you have specified and this service is free of cost.

Google Alerts not only helps in finding job openings but also helps in finding information about companies, individuals and the areas of your skill set.

How to Set up Google Job Alerts?

When Google Alerts are such a good tool to help you in your job search, how do you go about creating the Google Alerts for your specific job or company? Here take a look at the steps involved to create Google Alerts:

1. First step is to go to Google Alerts homepage.

2. On the homepage you get a text area written “Create an alert about”. Here you need to fill in what alert you want about.

3. If you are searching for a job in say, a managerial position, you need to type “jobs for manager post”.

4. As soon as you start typing you get a drop box with show options link and a “create alert” button.

5. When you click on “show options”, the options menu drops down.

6. The first is the “how often” option. You can select at most once a day, as it happens or at most once a week. If you don’t want your mail box to be filled with mails every day, you can select once a week option. This is for the Google Alert to send you message either through email address you provide or through direct RSS (Rich Site Summary) feed. So you can select the frequency of mails that Google Alert shall send to you.

7. The next interesting option is the “sources”. The sources include news, blogs, web, video, books or discussion. So you can select your required source or just select automatic which will include all the sources.

8. The next are the ‘language, ’region’ and ‘how many’ options which are quite easy to follow.

9. The last is the ‘deliver to’ option. Here it lists the email accounts already stored in your Google account. So you can choose how you would want the Google Alerts delivered to you. You can choose any of your email accounts or through the RSS feed.

10. Once you are done with selecting on all options you will have to click on the ‘Create Alert’ button. Your Google Alert is created for whatever alert you have typed.

11. You can create any number of alerts or multiple alerts in the same way. You can create one for say, ‘Jobs in banks’, ‘jobs in finance sectors’ and so on.

12. Try to filter and refine your search so that you get only the relevant mails.

13. And always read and retain relevant mails and delete the unwanted ones so that your inbox doesn’t get flooded with Google Alert mails.

How to Get Better Results on Google Alert for job search:

It is plain not just enough if you know how to use Google Alert. You need to know some tips and tricks to get the right alerts. If you are not aware of the tricks then managing the enormous amount of mails that you receive is quite an arduous task. And not to mention it is time consuming too. So for easy sorting, just follow the below written tips and tricks:

1. Being specific is preferred:

If you need jobs only in banks and not in any other finance sector, be specific. Write “jobs in banks” instead of writing “jobs in finance sectors”. This will streamline your search to only the jobs in banking sector.

2. Inclusion of a specific job:

Likewise, when you are more specific and want jobs only in private banks, then enclose the alert in inverted commas. So type in “jobs in private banks”. Here you will receive alerts only for jobs in private banks. If you hadn’t enclosed it in inverted commas, then Google takes it as ‘jobs in private banks’ and also as ‘jobs in banks’ and lists all the bank jobs including the private ones. So you save the possibilities of permutation and combination and thus receive alerts only of your relevance.

3. Exclusion of a specific job:

Now when you don’t want to include job in a specific organization, then make use of the minus sign. Say, you want jobs in the finance sector other than in government banks then type your Google Alert as “jobs in finance sector-government banks”. So here Google searches for all jobs in finance sector but excludes the ones in government banks. There is no space between the minus sign and the next immediate letter.

4. Limiting the search to certain websites:

There are times when you want your job search to be limited to only one website. In this case include the name of the website with the type of job you are searching. Like when you need to search for jobs in say CareerBuilder then create the Google Alert as “Jobs in finance sector” site:CareerBuilder.com. This will post you jobs in finance sector which are found only in the specified website. For Google to understand, do not keep any space between site: and the website name. It has to be continuous.

5. Extending the search to more than one city:

When you search for jobs in two cities, then make use of the OR word. For example when you are interested in taking up a job in finance sector either in Mumbai or Pune, then type the Google Alert as jobs in “finance sector”(Mumbai OR Pune). Here Google understands that it has to search for finance sector jobs both in Mumbai as well as Pune.

6. Iinclusion of anything in between:

Now if you are searching for some executive jobs, be it in any department then typing the executive post becomes a tedious job. So you can write as jobs for “Chief * Officer” Mumbai. Here the asterisk includes every possible assignment like maybe executive, finance or marketing. So you get alerts for posts of CEO, CMO or CFO in Mumbai.

7. Inclusion of similar terms:

When you want to include jobs in similar and related fields, then try inserting the ~ sign. Take an example, if you are interested in any jobs in the solar field then create a Google Alert as “~solar power jobs”. This will give you alerts in related words also like renewable energy jobs, solar energy etc. Here also remember that there is no space between ~ and the immediate letter.

So now you are a pro in refining your search and limiting it to the ones that are relevant to you. Those weeds out the unwanted ones and you are left with the job searches of your choice.

Why do you need Google Alert in your job search?

Okay, you are done with creating job alerts and you know that Google Alerts help you in finding jobs, but what apart from that are the advantages of Google Alert? You can think of Google Alert as your buddy and assistant in searching, sorting and guiding you through your job search. And you get information pretty quick through Google Alerts.

1. Be on the outlook for jobs in your dream companies:

Don’t you want a job in your dream company? Aren’t you eagerly waiting for job openings in some companies of your choice? Google Alert helps you here. When you create Google Alert for jobs in the company of your choice, you receive emails instantly and you can apply for the job openings.

2. Search for jobs in locations where you are interested:

If you are planning to move to a new city, then you wouldn’t be familiar with the job openings and the offices situated there. Also sometimes you would need to assess if a city has jobs which are relevant to you. All these are possible through Google Alert. Create alerts accordingly and you will know if there are job openings for your expertise in the location you are interested.

3. It keeps you updated with the requirements needed for your type of job:

You need to continuously keep on learning and upgrading yourself if you want to be relevant in your job. So what are the new skill sets you need to possess? Is it a compulsory requirement if you would want to change your job to elsewhere? What are the requirements of the job at present? What are the latest trends in the field that you feel you are lagging behind? All these and much more needed information is possible by tracking the job searches on Google Alert.

4. What is the salary you can expect?

Yeah, Salary is in no way a lesser criterion in your job search. So when you need a job or when you need to change jobs, be aware of the salary provided for your caliber. This helps you to convey to the company the salary you may be expecting.

5. Research about the company beforehand:

If you get a job opening in a company, then do some research on the company with the help of Google Alerts. You can type in the company name and select news and articles about the company. The mails you receive about the company will give you information about its latest status and ongoing matters in the company.

Why do you want to research about the company?

• You can impress the interviewers with your knowledge about the company. Because they would be impressed if you said that you know about the expansion plans of the company or that it was listed as the best firms in customer satisfaction. This helps to give you an edge over the other candidates in terms of your knowledge update skills.
• If there are negative ratings or news about the company, you can opt out of the job opening in that company. You can keep track of any customer complaints, lawsuits, employee unrest or high attrition rates among its employees. This is a red flag that the company’s reputation is not a good one and that you can skip applying for the current job opening or any in the future till matters are sorted out.

So it works either ways. Either it helps you during the interview or it helps you not to go for the interview.

6. Expand your search to suit you:

Don’t limit you Google Alerts to only the job searches. When you want to stay aware of the current happenings in your job field create Google Alerts accordingly. Maybe if you are interested in the banking sector, you would want to know about the changes in the lending rates or some new schemes launched in the banking sector. You would want information about banks and their yearly profits.

Basically you wouldn’t want to limit your search to only a few banks, but rather you would be interested in all bank related news so that it would help you to crack the interview. Yes, be specific when you want to search job openings. But expand your search when you want to gather information.

There are millions of news and information being fed on the net every day. And there are some very useful tools to sort the information. It is upto you to know what information is relevant to you and how you make use of it. Keep up with the ever evolving technology as you never know, when it will help you with a job. 

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