I had the pleasure of listening to one of my favorite authors and teachers Bob Sutton speaking about his new book “Good Boss, Bad Boss.” The event was at IDEO ( a company I deeply admire ) so it was a double bonus. Bob was kind enough to participate in the “Quought for the Day” series on this blog about four years ago. You can read his contribution here: Quought for the Day #23 – Bob Sutton.

Bob’s new book was released yesterday and I have not had a chance to read it yet. I plan to do so sooner than later.

Here are the highlights from the talk ( gems that everyone of us should treasure )

( highlights are in no particular order )

1. Good Bosses are perfectly assertive. They know when to turn it on and when to turn it off.

2. Good Bosses know that best management sometimes is no management at all. They know when to stop meddling with things un-necessarily.

3. Managers often overestimate their value and don’t realize the damage caused by watching and nagging employees.

4. The best bosses dance on the edge of overconfidence, but they also have a healthy dose of self-doubt and humility to save themselves from being pig-headed.

5. The best bosses make it safe to fight like crazy over ideas in an atmosphere of mutual respect.

6. Fight as if you are right, listen as if you are wrong.

7. The “5 to 1” Rule: Every bad interaction requires five good interactions to balance out.

Lastly,

8. Quick check to see how you are doing as a Boss – ask these two questions

8.1 Do you know what it feels to work for you?

8.2 If they had a choice, would they elect to work for you again?

Thanks Bob for the inspiring talk – I was so looking forward to it and it was as amazing as I expected it would be 🙂

For more insights, please visit Bob’s blog – Work Matters.