Bad Boss, Good Boss

Have you ever worked for someone who demanded the world of you but offered absolutely no support? You grew weary of the battle of going to work for fear of what was coming next. Or how about the boss who just wasn’t present at all? No direction, no support, no challenge, no boss. What about the seemingly supportive supervisor who tended to take on most of the tasks herself? “Let me just knock that out for you!” Eventually, that same supervisor blows up over the fact that you’re not able to do any of these things for yourself.

Each of these authority figures represents an unhealthy work environment. You might even recognize yourself and your leadership style in there somewhere. Some of us offer challenge without support, some offer support without challenge, and some offer nothing at all. The healthiest work environment we can create as leaders is when we combine a high level of support with a high level of challenge. Most of us will have tendencies to lead stronger in one of these areas. The trick is to equalize your support and challenge for your employees; to raise up your weaker side to match the level of your natural strength. It takes consistent intentionality to do that.

As you can see from the graphic, when we’re intentional with high support and high challenge, we’re creating a liberating environment. Who doesn’t want to work there?

By the way, the same applies to how you treat yourself and the members of your family. Consider where you are in the matrix. For an extra challenge, ask your family and team where they think you are and have a dialog about it.

Where are you now and what’s your plan to move toward liberation? Grab a free discovery call here and let’s talk about it!