
Boss is 90% of the 'Employee Experience' - mooreds
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/your-boss-90-employee-experience-nothing-else-comes-jim-bohn-ph-d-/
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irrational
This is so true in my experience. I've had the same boss for about 15 years.
He is awesome. He is the main reason I've stayed in the same department for so
long. He works really hard to make sure we have the tools we need for our jobs
and that we aren't bothered by things going on outside of our department. He
makes it so easy to just get our jobs done.

I have friends who work in other departments at the company who complain so
bitterly about their managers. They are constantly looking for new jobs.

~~~
SteveNuts
Do you have any examples of specific things this awesome manager does? I want
to be the best that I can as a new manager.

~~~
kingkongjaffa
Highly recommend to start here: [https://www.manager-tools.com/map-of-the-
universe#1186](https://www.manager-tools.com/map-of-the-universe#1186)

The manager tools "hall of fame podcasts".

The manager tools podcast gives you actionable advice on being a good manager.

Based on the fundamental idea that what defines a good manager is 2 things:
Results and Retention.

the manager tools concepts revolve around 4 key activities and principles.

1\. one on ones 2\. coaching 3\. feedback 4\. delegation

Focusing on these builds trust, facilitates mentor ship, builds an environment
for improvement, and asking for more.

The crux is that one-on-ones are a set format they they advocate that put's
the focus on the direct report.

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quake
I started a job at a new company about 6 months ago after a stressful 20
months at my first real engineering job. I didn't know that I had one of these
'bad managers' until I had a good one. The difference between a manager that
knows what they want, and know the product/environment over a manager that
simply knows what they want in very broad strokes is staggering.

~~~
hackermailman
All the good managers I've had share some characteristics: they don't micro
manage, they tell you exactly what they want, they don't try and be your best
friend and clearly establish themselves as a boss so you can honestly deal
with each other, they are proactive so aren't waiting around for us to tell
them we may be late, they can see for themselves delivery will be late well in
advance, and they take responsibility for failure instead of trying to sell
out everybody underneath them. It's always refreshing to deal with an honest
manager that recognizes they hold the power. The wannabe best friend managers
weasel around and are manipulative, a cancer in your team.

~~~
rsp1984
_they tell you exactly what they want_

Let me turn this around. I've run R&D at my startup for six years now. The #1
thing that sets apart a star engineer from an average one is the ability to
work successfully during situations of incomplete information.

In other words, the star engineer already knows what to do, without me having
to provide all the detail.

~~~
econnors
The subpar engineer is paralyzed by ambiguity; the excellent one thrives in it
(provided the problem or objective is well defined).

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stephenboyd
At my current company, I've had two managers in the 10 months I've been there.
Neither of them has directly been a big part of my employee experience, which
has been great and is certainly to their (and the company leadership's)
credit.

As a developer in a scrum team in a scaled agile organization, my team gets
technical guidance from a software architect, organizational guidance from a
scrum master, and the purpose of our work is to support the product for which
we get guidance from a product owner. So there isn't as much left over for our
boss, who checks in on us regularly to listen to our concerns. It's certainly
less stressful that the people who tell us what to do have no direct power
over us, and that they trust us to figure out how to get things done.

Of course the real test comes from how they handle problems when things go
wrong, but it's been a good 10 months so far.

~~~
zrth
I can somewhat understand that you like that the people who tell you what to
do don't have power over you. But doesn't that imply that people that you
don't work with much have power over you? Is that better?

~~~
stephenboyd
Good point. I've noticed that risk, but it hasn't been a problem so far. Maybe
it's not much different from the risk most developers have from being less
familiar to their boss's boss and higher ups.

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sz4kerto
Now the big question: what determines how your boss behaves. You can bet that
it's not just how nice or competent she is. She also has a boss, etc.

So your boss is someone who really affects your well being, but it's not
completely down to her what work environment she can provide to you.
Recognition, rewards, projects - employees perceive it's all down to their
boss. It's not.

Similar attribution fallacy as when CEOs of successful companies are found
amazing, insightful, etc.

~~~
ChuckMcM
And, perhaps not surprisingly, this explains why the bad habits or choices of
a CEO tend to percolate down through the organization.

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scarface74
I would agree. I don’t work for companies, I work for managers. It’s
constantly repeated on the Manager Tools podcast that as a manager, you are
the company to your reports.

~~~
mooreds
The hard part about this is that you may not know your manager, especially
when beginning a career.

If you are interviewing, make sure you talk to the manager who you will report
to! It's such a crucial part of the job experience.

I've only listened to the 'one to ones' part of the Manager Tools podcast, but
that was so useful.

~~~
scarface74
Why wouldn’t you know your manager at the beginning of your career? You still
would be interviewing with the hiring manager at most companies wouldn’t you?

But at the beginning of your career you really don’t have too much leverage.

At this point in my career, I’m really picky. I don’t work for non technical
managers who aren’t a semi recent developer. It gets tiring trying to explain
the reasons for doing things or explaining the complexity of something to non
technical managers. But, also at this point in my career, even if I’m
officially just an individual contributor, companies don’t hire me at my
asking salary (not SV salaries by any means) just because they need a warm
body who can develop a feature in yet another software as a service CRUD app.
They are hiring me to bring higher level architectural experience to the team.

On the other hand, if I am being hired as a contractor (not consultant) as
just staff augmentation, I do whatever job they are paying me for, submit my
hours and go home.

If I am coming in as an overpriced “digital transformation consultant” or
“cloud consultant”, I will talk the language of business and start talking
about Gardner Magic Squares, and levels of the cloud maturity models, etc.

~~~
abakker
You might be careful about that last paragraph. Many people would expect you
to know that it was “Gartner magic quadrants”.

~~~
scarface74
Yeah I was being sarcastic. I haven’t had to talk about Gartner (stupid
autocorrect did it again). I have had to talk about the cloud maturity model
and mention my certifications (which were stupidly easy and don’t prove
anything).

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jowdones
"Boss is 90% of employee experience" was only true for 1 of my 4 employers so
far (across 20 years).

Now the bosses are great but I hate the nature of my job deeply and sincerely.
Maintenance and bugfixing, only reward after tormented patching of a pile of
crap is more piles of crap coming up.

~~~
sombremesa
Is there a reason you haven't left for greener pastures?

~~~
jowdones
This IS the greener pasture.

------
dreamcompiler
I've had terrible, great, and mediocre bosses too. The phenomenon that gets me
most is why so many of the terrible ones clearly have destructive personality
disorders. If you have your own page in the DSM, the damage you can do to the
organization as an individual contributor is limited, but you can do 100x more
damage as a manager. And many of these people are _very_ good at convincing
people above them in the organization that they are wonderful.

I wish it were standard procedure in organizations to give full psychiatric
evaluations to all manager candidates prior to promotion so that at least the
psychopaths, narcissists, and sexual predators could be weeded out ahead of
time.

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randomacct3847
In 6 years of working in sf tech I can’t say I’ve had a good manager yet. It’s
maddening.

~~~
megaremote
Well, it is harder to go back to a bad manager after you have had a good one.

Or you might just not like any managers.

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peter_d_sherman
Excerpt:

"The insightful and interesting role model bosses were amazing. They were
people who inspired me to come to work. Every day I was learning something new
about a business or a tool from their experience. They saw strategy and
complex issues with clarity. I was often humbled in their presence and felt
the need to work harder to keep up with their example. Quite often these
leaders were pleasant, had a sense of humor and yet knew how to get the job
done. They knew how to listen, and they knew what to ask. Several of them are
some of the smartest people I've ever met."

------
xrd
I would argue it is not just your immediate superior. It's all the people
above him as well. I had an amazing boss when I look back but he never was
able to protect me from the incredible toxic crap at all levels above him.

In fact, I would argue it's not really your boss but the average of the bosses
above you, or even the maximum of the worst boss in the chain.

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j2k3k
Absolutely true. Treat your employees right and they'll return it.

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OrgNet
between 90 and 100% (it depends if you get fired or not)

