A Question You Should Ask Yourself… Are You a Good Boss or a Great One?

January 11, 2011

As an operational executive with over 30 years of experience in the software industry, trust me, I worked for some good bosses and some great bosses (Mike Fields, Ray Lane and Larry Ellison are a few names that come to mind).

At OpenView Partners, when we invest growth capital in an expansion stage software company, we spend a lot of time helping the founders, CEOs and their management teams improve their skill sets. In fact, as partners we all wrote blogs about management (The Lonely CEO), assessment (Time to Look in the Mirror) and improvement (Mr. CEO: Would You Hire Yourself).

I came across a good article in the Harvard Business Review I believe all founders, CEOs, and their management teams should take the opportunity to read. It was written by Linda A. Hill and Kent Lineback and titled “Are You a Good Boss-or a Great One”.

In the article they discuss how…

Most Managers Stop Working on Themselves

Ask a couple of questions everyone should ask…

Do you understand what’s required to become truly effective?

Do you understand what you’re trying to attain?

Cover the 3 Imperatives needed to achieve performance from a group of people. This is what management is all about…

  1. Manage Yourself
  2. Manage Your Network
  3. Manage Your Team

Offer a tool to help you measure and assess your performance against the 3 Imperatives. You can check it out here.

Then discuss What You Can Do Right Now and cover the daily rhythm you need to get into. This entails…

  • Prep
  • Do
  • Review

This article is a quick read if you want to check it out here.

Everyone should aspire to improve their skills so they can transform from a good boss into a great boss. If you are looking for more ideas on People & Team Development or Board & Senior Management Development, you should check out the Company Development section of our OpenView Labs website.

If interested, just click here and we will connect you.

All the best!

G

Venture Partner

<strong>George Roberts</strong> is a Venture Partner at OpenView. He enjoys partnering with companies and helping them achieve their goals through strategy, focus and operational execution. From 1990 to 2003, George spent 13 years at Oracle Corporation, most recently having served as Executive Vice President of North American Sales. While at Oracle, George was responsible for over $1 billion in revenue and more than 2,000 employees, reporting directly to the company’s CEO and Chairman, Larry Ellison.