How To Be A Great Boss

Welcome to my How To Be A Great Boss book summary!

“Management is not what you do to someone; it’s what you provide for someone. If you’re feeling like you have to manipulate or overly manage someone, you have a people issue.” (p. 79) I’d add that….or you have the employee in the wrong job.

booboo book rating: ★★★★★ (percentage of books with this rating: 43%)

You need the following to keep expectations clear:

• Roles (no more than 5 major roles)
• Core Values (how to act and make decisions in your absence)
• Rocks (up to seven quarterly goals using SMART goal setting; set them with your people)
  • Step 1: Share your company’s annual goals and quarterly priorities
  • Step 2: Create your team’s issues list
  • Step 3: Ask reports “what do you see as the most important things that must get done in the next ninety days?”
  • Step 4: Make them SMART
  • Step 5: Each of your reports should be clear by the end of the meeting on their Rocks
• Measurables (KPIs with numbers; ask yourself which numbers can predict success or failure? Be sure to differentiate between leading and trailing indicators – for example, in a basketball game, the score is a trailing indicator and time of possession is a leading indicator.

Expectations are a combination of all four areas above. “When you keep your expectations clear, you will rarely have to fire anyone that does not meet them. They will usually quit because they realize they can’t live up to your expectations.” (p. 85)

Expectations are a two-way street. After you share your expectations of your employees, ask them about their expectations towards you. “Now that I’ve shared my expectations with you, what are your expectations of me that will help you be successful?”

When explaining something important to your team member, “Echo”, by having them repeat back to you what you just told them. You can do the same for them.

“A great boss crates a work environment where wpeople are fully engaged and highly accountable.” (p. 53)

Quarterly high-level check-in is needed. Problems will fall into three categories:

1. ones you can’t solve (just acknowledge, say why it can’t be changed, and ask them to accept that it is the way it is)
2. ones that you must solve (agree on a timeline and plan, but first ask your direct for solutions)
3. ones they must solve (agree on timeline and plan)

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Management Practice #5: Rewarding and Recognizing

“Studies show that people work harder for recognition than they do for money.”

Give both positive and negative feedback within 24 hours.

Praise in public, criticize in private.

How to correct undesirable behaviors: If your direct report fails to deliver and doesn’t see or admit they are not delivering, you have to identify the issue(s), have three examples per issue, ensure that person acknowledges and agrees that they’re below the bar you’ve set before determining an appropriate action plan, have a meeting with them to correct it via an action plan. Do this two-months in a row and fire at the end of the second month.

When you’re not sure as a manager, ask yourself:

1. Do I keep expectations clear?
2. Am I communicating well?
3. Do I have the right meeting frequency?
4. I am having quarterly conversations?
5. I am rewarding and recognizing?

I got the following from a recommended resource in the book about how to set meetings. I also like how they framed meetings. It’s not a waste of time (as it’s often considered), but it’s a time saver as you’ll be more in sync with your directs. In $100M Leads, Hormozi does a great job explaining managing. Eventually, you will exchange 40 hours per week of your time for 5 hours of managing.

Meetings need to have the following:

1. Same Day
2. Same Time
3. Same Agenda
4. Start and End on Time

Level 10 Meeting (90-minutes)

1. Good news (personal or professional)
2. Reporting (extracting issues)
   1. Task Review
   2. Rock Review (Quarterly Goals)
   3. Customer/Employee Headline
   4. To-Do List (7-day action items)
      1. Review last week’s to-do’s (goal: 90% completion rate)
3. Issues List (from #2)
4. Identify-Discuss-Solve (#3 is transformed into #4 with prioritization)
   1. Get to as many issues as possible, but some weeks you will cover many, other weeks fewer items.
   2. Key point: ensure you’ve identified the real issue first
   3. Once each point is “solved” a to-do is created
5. Recap (last 5 minutes)

Did you know I’m an author? I wrote four books on real estate investing, travel, and language learning.

Thanks for visiting my book review and summary, and thanks to Gino Wickman and René Boer for writing How To Be A Great Boss!