Bosses - the Best Ones

It's funny, but finding examples of good bosses is a lot more difficult than I first thought. Anyway, here goes.

I went to a football match yesterday - Fulham against Burnley. I was with some Burnley friends, who watched in increasing disbelief and pain, as Fulham rammed in four goals and won the game 4-2. After the game, the Burnley manager, Sean Dyche (seen above in his playing days as captain of Northampton Town), was asked if he thought they deserved better. He simply said "no." They were beaten by the better team on the day. Now, that's a good manager, as far as I'm concerned. To have the guts to say you were second best and not somehow try to turn it round to sound like you were robbed in some way. Honesty, integrity and the ability to hold up his hand and admit his team was not good enough. The fans love the honesty too. They really do. They're not fools - they can see when their team has been played off the park. Other managers do not do this, of course. They whinge and whine about bad luck, the referee, the other team's tactics, the weather, the time-wasting, the diving and even the antics of the opposing team's mascot.

So, having put Sean Dyche out there as a pretty good example of what a good manager should be, let's tread a little further down the path of what I call good managing (especially in my industry - English language courses).

First, and foremost, he or she has to be calm and relaxed under pressure. That's top of my pile. You can't be serious all the time and only view success as the 'closed 'deal. That's the quickest way to an ulcer, breakdown or worse. And a stressed-out manager invariably radiates tension to the whole office. And stress can be the prime cause for failure in getting deals. It's 'rabbits in the headlights' syndrome. This can also spread to the dynamic of the office. Stressed employees become disillusioned clockwatchers, who need the comfort and reassurance of extended Facebook sessions (in office time) to relieve this tension. The end result is no one really caring anymore. It's just a case of getting through the week in one piece. A great manager will try to create a happy and stress-free atmosphere, where success and failure are met with the same caring reaction. Employees will work far better when they know that the penalty for failure is not death, being shouted at or... being sacked. No one likes having tea-cups being thrown at them at half-time.

I would go further. A good manager should understand (like Sean Dyche) that failure is as much a part of the job as success. I've always believed that you become a better manager, only after several failures. If you can learn from these, then you will be better equipped in the future. Also, to nurture and help your team in the aftermath of a failure can only bond the team better. You'll find that the team will actually want to stay behind after 5.30 to get things done and then perhaps all go for a drink, rather than skip off at 6.00, because it's the acceptable time to leave, when they could have gone at 5.30!

Another vital trait is to have the nerve and confidence to walk away (from a possible business deal or sale) with your head in the air, if it doesn't feel right - pride intact. That's another trait I love in a manager. Shows you know what you're doing and will not bend to the unreasonable demand of someone demanding 35% commission for their business. Also shows you're bigger than the sale and that there are more fish in the sea. And it shows your team that you have integrity. A team will love that since it shows that principles really do matter and that they should do the same. Strangely enough, on the other side of the coin, buyers mostly respect that sort of treatment and often come knocking at your door in a far more reasonable mood.

Knowledge of the business is up there too. The best two managers I ever worked under, Jane Merrick (Regent Summer Schools) and Kate Naameh (International House London), were unsurpassable when it came to detailed knowledge of not just the individual global markets, but also (crucially) with all the different agents' various peccadilloes. What do I mean by this? Well, both had that amazing knack of 'knowing' every agent round the world. And I mean that. Both could name the agent's partner, their children, their hobbies, their favourite food and even their pet dogs and cats. And to have that knowledge is gold-dust, of course. Everyone likes to be unique and remembered. Jane and Kate made the agent from Albania or Outer Mongolia feel like that. And sales rolled in.

And to be able to talk straight. What I mean is that a good manager doesn't drift into obscure and silly idioms, inappropriate words, or start sentences with: "I think we can do that..." or "To be completely honest...'. It just sounds like they don't know what to do or, worse still, that they have been speaking untruthfully up to that point.

Furthermore, whenever I hear a manager talking 'pro-actively' about sales 'synergy' and 'bespoke' products, the warning bells start to sound. My worries are further compounded when stuff like 'helicopter-vision' and 'kicking stuff into the long grass' gets trotted out. Not only does all this sound ridiculous, but it clouds the whole selling process. A buyer does not want to be bamboozled by sales-speak. It just sounds as if the seller does not have the vocabulary to explain things in a normal, easily-understood way. I have never heard good things said about a manager who indulges in real or mangled idioms the whole time. It generally just confuses the issue and they inevitably end up a gum tree, without a paddle.

Finally, reverting to a them at the top of this article, a good manager tries to make his team feel happy. Now that may seem silly and somewhat trite, but it is essential. A happy person sounds different on the phone or in a meeting to a miserable or stressed-out person. And buyers want to deal with happy and confident people. To do this, a good manager will make sure that his or team gets a good salary, excellent bonuses and will allow for the odd two-hour lunch break. Thought I'd end on that. So that's my agenda for being a great manager. It's not that complicated, after all. I just wish there were more of me ( and Sean Dyche) around!