I Asked My Employees What Makes A Good Leader — Here’s What They Told Me

The ONE thing every employee wants their boss to do

Photo by Free Walking Tour Salzburg on Unsplash

I was chatting with some of my team the other day, and I asked them a simple question.

“What’s one thing that makes a good leader?”

The resounding answer?

“Don’t be a dick.”

Why your boss is such a dick

Why are there so many bosses out there who are absolute dicks?

Come on, I know you’ve had one. We all have.

Do positions of leadership attract people like that?

Maybe — but I think it has more to do with the fact that leaders are often put in situations where they’re forced to be the bad guy/gal.

Here are some of the things your boss probably has to deal with daily:

• Managing poor conduct (“He told Jamie and me off for talking three times today — he’s such a dick.”)
• Giving feedback (“He told me he wasn’t happy with my performance on my last project, but I worked my ass off on that — he’s such a dick.”)
• Dealing with employee time-off requests (“He wouldn’t let me have Saturday off, even though I gave him three days…