18 was to be a great boss.docVIP

18 Ways to Be a Great Boss: There are few career moments as exciting -- and these days, as perilous -- as taking over the top job at a company, business unit, or department. But what exactly do you do once youre in charge? This online guide provides 18 tactics -- and case studies -- to help you take the reigns running. ? 1. Begin your transition before you start the job. Use the interview process to get an early jump on learning about the organization. Ask critical questions: How are decisions made? What are the key challenges? Which functions are strong, and which ones need to be overhauled? Use that information to build some initial hypotheses about how you would change things for the better. ? Take your cue from Steve Bennett who took over the CEO spot at Intuit Corp. The interview process is where you start, he says. Thats where you ask all of the questions about what it takes to be successful. ? 2. Travel widely within your organization, listen carefully, and look for patterns in everything you see and hear. Bruce Patton, co-author of Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most and a partner with Vantage Partners, a Boston-based relationship management consulting firm, advises new leaders to spend a lot of time listening and asking questions. Talk to employees up and down the hierarchy. Soon youll start to see a pattern about whats going on, he says. ? Within his first month on the job, Steve Bennett hit the road and tested the hypotheses that he had formed during his interviews. In 30 days, he visited dozens of locations and talked to hundreds of people, gathering feedback and insight on what was right - and wrong - with the firms operations. ? 3. As you ask questions, look for the rising stars whom you want as part of your team. Your listening tour may help you identify the key players whose skills you need as part of your management team. If youre engaging in high quality inquiry, youll want to keep people who had good answers, Patton says. ?