7 Counterintuitive Ways To Be a Boss People Love
1. Resist helping.
I was angry. My new boss refused to help. Isn’t a leader supposed to mentor and guide? I hated this guy already.
He’d asked me to coordinate three days of training in Okinawa, Japan with Marines, weapons, and ammunition. I was freshly promoted and had just arrived in Japan. I knew no one, knew nothing about Okinawa, and had no idea where to start.
He could have so easily guided me with his knowledge and saved me a ton of time and headaches, but he refused.
I grudgingly started from scratch. Talking to people. Asking questions. Finding out how things worked such as transporting live ammunition on public Japanese roads. Being resourceful. After about a week I had it planned.
I ran the plan by my boss, and he was pleased. He said:
“See, if I would have held your hand from day one, you would have had this planned more quickly, but now you are much more knowledgeable than you would have been had I walked you through it.”
I was also much more confident in what I could get done.
I went from angry that he wouldn’t help and hating the guy to grateful he didn’t help and loving the guy.
