What Your Leader Expects of You & What you should Expect in return

Thoughts By : Larry Bossidy

• He Was - CEO of Allied Signal (1991-99) - Chairman & CEO of Honeywell from (2001-02) - CEO & Vice Chairman of General Electric.

• This presentation is based on one of the article published by Harvard Business Review April 2007

• Article is based on study of certain behavior on the part of boss & subordinate specially expectation on both the sides.

---------What your boss expects from you

---------

1.Get Involved

• Delegation.• Judgment Call ( Redirecting resources to a product that’s suddenly taking

off in the market, helping to resolving break down in quality or visiting a plant why the productivity has fall down )

- Take the blame for the things that go wrong & give the credit for the positive development to their employee.- When leader’s involvement will have most impact on business, A. when somebody is falling behind in her commitments. B. when important personnel matter arises, particularly if there is conflict. C. in situation of crises.

2. Generate the ideas.

• Common frustration in corporate America – Lack of ideas.• A person who is innovative & creative should be valued

unfortunately such people are not appreciated.• Often the best idea sound crazy.• Example : Allied Signal , where people very dispirited by

company’s lagging performance. Author was interested to increase their own spirit level. Somebody suggested to hire

• Speak out the good ideas. ( generally unwilling )

3. Be willing to collaborate• It may not be in someone’s financial interest to cooperate.• Much more can be achieved when we bring every one to the table at once

– people are aware with this but still resist collaboration as they are unwilling to share the credit.

• Example : Person who ran manufacturing & who ran marketing & sells didn’t get along well.( at own business of author )

4. Be willing to lead initiative

• People are often reluctant to be associated with untested idea, particularly if it crosses the functional boundaries.

• Example : Six sigma implementation at Allied Signal

5. Develop the leader as you develop.

• One should take as much interest in their sub-ordinate’s development as they do in their own – if not more.

• Example : Author had a boss, a midlevel manager at GE

6. Stay current

• We should be aware of what’s going on in the world – just because what happens in the world affects what happens to us, to our marketplace & to our competition.

• Know what’s going on with customers – how they are changing how their competition is changing, how technologies & world events affecting their strategies.

7. Drive your own growth

• Starch the working boundaries in tough assignments.• Make addition in your existing work profile.

--------What you can expect from your boss

--------

1. Provide clarity of direction

• Leader should communicate clearly where the business is going & what benefits will if we accomplish what we set out to achieve.

• Boss should explain relevant financial results & the progress of any operational or strategic initiative.

2. Set goals & objectives • In addition to team goals, each person should know exactly what

individual goals he or she is going to be measured over a given period & where invest precious time.

• Promotions & Bonus schemes should be based on such merits.

3. Give frequent, specific & immediate feedback.

• Employees shouldn’t have to wait for an annual review to learn how they are doing, & if the feedback is going to help driver the growth , then it needs to be as specific as possible.

• No complicated forms of assessment.

4. Be decisive & Timely• Decisiveness isn’t useful if it isn’t timely.• Asking for help is not a sign of weakness but of a self confidence.

5. Be accessible • Boss should be available to get informed for everything at least when it is

in his interest. - Frequently – a boss doesn’t learn that someone is leaving a company until he is about to walk out the door.• Boss should develop such environment where subordinate feel free to

share the bad news also.

6. Demonstrate honesty & truthfullness

7. Offer an equitable compensation plan

Thank You Very Muchfor listening.