How to Become a Great Boss

The great boss stirs the people. The great boss elevates, applauds, and lauds the employees. The great boss makes people believe in themselves and feel special, selected, anointed. The great boss makes people feel good.

Great bosses are memorable. In sixty seconds, this boss created a memory to last over sixty years.

The employee was twenty-four. It was his first real job. He was in the fifth week.

That morning there was a knock on the six- foot-tall glass wall that framed his "office." "Excuse me, Mr. Godfrey, my name is Ralph Hart," said a courtly, exquisitely dressed man in his sixties. "Do you have a minute?"

"Of course," answered the young employee, who recognized the name, but not the face, of the company's legendary Chairman-of-the-Board. "Thank you," said Mr. Hart. "Mr. Godfrey, may I tell you a few things about your company?" To the employee's nod, Mr. Hart continued: "Mr. Godfrey, your company is a first-class company. We have first-class products. We have first-class customers. We have first-class advertising. In fact, sometimes we even fly first-class because the airlines are some of our first-class customers."

Extending his hand to the new employee, Mr. Hart paused, and with eyes riveted on Godfrey, he concluded: "And Mr. Godfrey, we only hire first-class people. Welcome to Heublein."

If you believe that able and motivated people are the key to an enterprise's success, then Mr. Hart just taught you a lot. If you don't believe able and motivated people are the key to an enterprise's success, then stop reading and give this book to someone else.

The Great Boss Simple Success Formula

1. Only hire top-notch, excellent people.
2. Put the right people in the right job. Weed out the wrong people.
3. Tell the people what needs to be done.
4. Tell the people why it is needed.
5. Leave the job up to the people you've chosen to do it.
6. Train the people.
7. Listen to the people.
8. Remove frustration and barriers that fetter the people.
9. Inspect progress.
10. Say "Thank you" publicly and privately.

Companies Do What the Boss Does

People take their cues from the boss. The boss sets the tone and the standards. The boss sets the example. Over time, the department, the office, the store, the workshop, the factory, the company begin to do what the boss does.

If the boss is always late, punctuality becomes a minor obligation. If the boss is always in meetings, everybody is always in meetings. If the boss calls on customers, customers become important. If the boss blows off customer appointments, the salesforce makes fewer sales calls. If the boss is polite, rude people don't last. If the boss accepts mediocrity, mediocrity is what she gets. If the boss is innovative and inventive, the company looks for opportunities. If the boss does everyone's job, the employees will let him. If the boss gives everyone in the organization a World Series ring, then everyone wants to win the World Series. If the boss leads a charge, the good and able employees will be a step behind.

Great bosses understand this phenomenon. Great bosses position the organization to succeed, not with policies, but with posture and presence. If the great boss wants a policy of traveling on Sunday or practice before presentations, he or she travels on Sunday and practices presentations. If the boss doesn't want little snowstorms to make people late to the office, he gets in early the day of the storm and makes the coffee . . . and serves coffee to the stragglers as they arrive.

Some bosses lead purposefully, others innately. Whether intentional or not, the great boss shapes the organization. Because the company does what the boss does, the boss better perform, or the company won't.

How to Shift Gears, Change Careers, and Become a Yoga Teacher

Do you enjoy practicing Yoga? Does teaching Yoga seem like your ultimate dream job? Does the thought of becoming a Yoga teacher feel like a “calling from within?” How would you pay your bills teaching Yoga? If your life mission is becoming a Yoga teacher; let’s look at a few practical solutions to your obstacles.

If you feel like a “fish in water” during a Yoga class you are not alone. However, when teaching Yoga becomes your own long-held aspiration, your spirit will not be fulfilled in the “daily grind.” You begin to feel frustrated in commuter traffic, and during office hours, when your dream job of teaching Yoga seems out of reach. So what do you do next - if you really want to become a Yoga teacher?

Apparently, you are focused on your goal, so you are far ahead of the majority of people who do not have a clue about what they really want. Here is a formula, and sequence of events, for you to consider: Focus, action, plan, envision, pace yourself, and goal realization.

Focus: It seems like you already are focused on becoming a Yoga teacher, but you should do some research on what teaching Yoga is really like. The types of Yoga teacher training courses will vary, according to style, hours required, on-site training, or correspondence course. Also, the preparation for a 90-minute Yoga class is something the average Yoga student is unaware of.

Action: Most of the world’s population never gets to this point. Most people fall into a “rut” and never take any action to move forward. This requires even more research about what you plan to do, how you plan to teach Yoga, and who you plan to teach Yoga to.

Plan: Write your goals down and only share them with people you can trust. Look at your goal of becoming a Yoga teacher as often as possible. Write down the exact chain of events required for you to become a Yoga teacher.

Envision: Visualization is important in reaching any goal. When you practice meditation, you should see, feel, hear, and possibly smell, what your new career of teaching Yoga will be like.

Pace Yourself: There is a saying, “Rome was not built in a day.” If you try to get to your goal of teaching Yoga too quickly, you will “burn out” along the way. Life is a journey, not a race; “stop and smell the flowers” along the way.

Goal Realization: Once you become a Yoga teacher, do not “rest on your laurels.” Continuing education will be an important and valuable part of your life. A Yoga teacher is a student of healthy living for life.

Become an Executive Assistant

From research to writing, Tahisha Williams developed the entire performance review for 100 employees in the technology division of NorVergence, a Newark, New Jersey-based telecommunications company. While this may sound like a human resources manager's task, Williams is the executive assistant to the chief technology officer, and she loves the level of responsibility her boss has given her.

"I thrive on being challenged, completing tasks, being the best at it -- not in a boastful way, but for my own self-esteem," Williams says.

If making the jump from administrative assistant to executive assistant appeals to you, start by taking the lead. Heed the following advice on what factors can make the difference between making a Cinderella ascent up the administrative ladder and getting left in the pumpkin patch.

Be Proactive

While strong computer skills may nail you an administrative assistant position, applicants for executive assistant jobs must show initiative, says Laura Smith, senior vice president of human resources and administration for Edelman Public Relations in Washington, DC.

"Don't just gather proposals for getting a new copier for the office," she says. "Instead, look at purchase versus lease, look for cost comparisons and [investigate] whether a new copier is necessary."

What's key is demonstrating that you can think strategically or proactively rather than merely react to others' requests. "Too often, I see resumes where people list their job duties and very little on what they actually accomplished," Smith says.

If your current role seems to lack opportunities for initiative, ask to be involved in -- or, better yet, take the lead on -- additional projects with your current employer, Smith says. Indicate the results of your ingenuity on your resume.

Show Reliability and Dedication

When assessing executive-level administrative applicants, Dan Campbell, CEO of Atlanta-based Hire Dynamics, looks for skills that would benefit CEOs, COOs and other C-level executives, such as evidence of honesty and reliability.

"C-level people want to hire people they can trust, so if you have a history of dealing with confidential information successfully, that's certainly an advantage," he says.

Be an Asset, Not Just an Assistant

Standards are more stringent for executive assistants than for administrative assistants, because execs can make a huge difference in a company's day-to-day operations, Campbell says. He hired his current executive assistant just three months ago and already regards her as an invaluable asset to his company.

"My personality goes in 20 different directions at once, and she's done a fantastic job getting me organized," he says. "Nobody knows better where I need to be; she organizes events, takes leads and makes sure the culture of the company is maintained."

If you treat your daily work as essential to your company, rather than merely as a job, you are on your way to becoming a successful executive admin.