Re-evaluate Your Leadership This New Year

We act like a person not liking their boss is inevitable. It's not. Not in the Newton's Law type way it's currently discussed. People could totally like their bosses. It's well within the realm of possibility.

We've had multiple bosses we liked. One offered free meals as a perk at his food joint so that none of his employees would go hungry. While some restaurants try to recoup part of their losses by "generously" charging their employees half price, we ate for free. If anyone's wondering, yes, we do have some strongly worded opinions on restaurants charging their staff for meals.

In another job, a boss was clearly more knowledgeable than us, but used his knowledge to help us do our jobs better, rather than withholding information and yelling at us when we didn't understand something.

These people were good leaders. They didn't give out orders, they didn't make demands, and they ensured we were sufficiently equipped for the job at hand. We never did anything they hadn't done themselves, and there was patience during the learning curve.

Another commonality among those jobs was how long we stayed at them. We were at each one for years, not because we couldn't get anything better, but because there wasn't anything better to get.

As December turns to January and 2017 turns to 2018, take stock of the leadership in your company. If you yourself are a leader, genuinely take notice of how you treat your employees in every situation or how your employees behave when you walk into a room. How you give praise, discipline, or pal around can say a lot about how well suited you are to leadership.

If you don't think you can be honest with yourself, start asking around. See if employees have suggestions on how you can improve as a leader. And if they give you reasonable criticism, don't get your hackles up. They're trying to help, not insult you personally…unless someone starts insulting you personally and explicitly. Then you're good to channel Teddy Roosevelt.