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.

Great Admins Are in Great Demand

What will 2008 hold for administrative professionals? With so many forces roiling the labor market -- the trend toward just-in-time hiring, an economy squeezed by a credit crunch, technology that both destroys and creates jobs -- it’s hard to say. But this perennial truth will hold: Great admins are hard to find, and they will be in great demand.

“During times of uncertainty, contingent business goes up,” meaning more temporary hiring of admins, says Dan Glazier, chief operating officer of Snelling Staffing Services in Dallas. “But 2007 has been fairly uncertain, and there’s been a lot of direct-hiring of permanent employees, so that’s countercyclical.”

Why is this happening? Companies are somewhat low on headcount overall, so that makes them more likely to hire full-time, says Glazier. Employers may also convert a temporary administrative position to full-time sooner rather than later, to avoid losing a top admin to the competition.

And administrative professionals can find themselves buffeted by short-lived but strong currents in local labor markets. “You can have microburst of demand for administrative work, then an overabundance of admins -- things can change very quickly,” says Glazier. “Merger or acquisition could cause the elimination or creation of a position overnight.”

What Hiring Managers Want

As important as technology will be in admins’ workdays in 2008, there’s a growing acknowledgement of the primacy of soft skills in these people-intensive jobs.

Two-thirds of human resources managers said they would hire a candidate with strong soft skills and weak technical ability, according to a survey sponsored in part by the International Association of Administrative Professionals (IAAP) and HR.com. But only 9 percent of these managers said they would hire someone who was strong on tech and weak with people.

In addition, hiring managers are increasingly looking for admins with industry-specific experience, says the IAAP study.

More and more employers are creating multi-skill positions that put a high value on flexibility, says Glazier. In 2008, an admin may find herself answering the phone and stuffing envelopes in the morning, writing the boss’s PowerPoint and putting together a five-country road show itinerary in the afternoon, and then calling the boss at home at 9 p.m. to remind him to dial in to a conference call.

Admin Pay Is More Stratified Than Ever

When it comes to pay, all admins are not created equal. And in 2008, experience, location and the boss’s position will make even more of a difference.

Entry-level administrative assistants earn about $34,000 on average as of December 2007, according to Salary.com, Executive assistants average $46,000, though when they report to a C-level executive in a big-city office, these key employees can pull down $70,000 to $100,000 or more, according to industry observers.

Higher-level administrative professionals don’t just earn more, they’ll get higher percentage raises in 2008, according to another survey. While the average administrative assistant’s salary will increase a slim 2.1 percent in 2008, an executive assistant is likely to get a 3.2 percent bump, and a senior executive assistant 3.7 percent.

Virtual Assistants Are on the Rise

Another key trend is the substantial increase in administrative business outsourced to virtual assistants. These entrepreneurs may serve a handful of clients -- usually small businesses -- or oversee a stable of freelance admins.

When you’re on your own, both software skills and up-to-the-minute office technology savvy are critical.

“The collaboration software is really where it’s at,” says Jennifer Goodwin, principal of InternetGirlFriday.com. “We stay on top of products and services such as Groove, Yugma, WebEx, Microsoft OfficeLive and HyperOffice. When I’m working with my client’s team of five, to be able to take my client’s files and store them in my own online area has been wonderful.”

Taking the trend to the next logical step, Goodwin has begun to selectively subcontract administrative work overseas. This strategy has worked, but strict quality control is a necessity. “You have this idea that you’re going to hire someone at $3 an hour and they’re going to do it just like a genie -- that doesn’t happen,” says Goodwin. “You have to scout, interview, train and test, just as you would with a local hire.”