We’ve all had good bosses and bad bosses and I am sure you would consider yourself one of the former, but how good are you really? Check off the points below and see how many you can honestly say you deliver on.

Do you?

• Lead your business from the front?
• Sometimes follow the lead of your employees?
• Tell your employees what your strategy is, so that they can see the big picture and buy into it?
• Listen to employee feedback, value it and use their ideas?
• Help employees feel comfortable talking about their concerns, ideas, or goals? Or are they afraid of being judged, squashed or belittled?
• Trust your employees’ good judgement and value their contribution to your business?
• Understand and appreciate that your employees have personal goals and objectives, outside of work?
• Understand what motivates each member of your staff?
• Understand what your employees value, and need, to help them perform better?
• Share your long-term vision with your team?
• Clearly demonstrate how each team member can contribute to that vision?
• Inspire and motivate staff?
• Believe, and invest in professional development, for both you and your staff?
• Understand the difference between managing and coaching?
• Know what’s going on in your employee’s lives?
• Think you know all there is to know about leadership?

One of the most important questions above asks, “Do you know the difference between managing and coaching?”

Let’s compare your business to a professional sports team. The general manager’s job is very different from the coach’s. The manager considers external factors – such as what’s best for the team on a global level. The coach however, tries to get the best performance from each member of the team.

To do this he, or she, needs to know their employees’ strengths and weaknesses and work to maximize their strengths and minimize their weaknesses by providing advice, training, or other forms of personal and professional development.

This involves understanding what inspires them and keeping them motivated and pumped every time they step onto the playing field. It also means understanding how to make each unique individual recognize their role and value on the team. This coaching helps teams become a cohesive unit and increases productivity. While a good business owner manages his, or her business, they must also have a coach’s mentality if they expect to get the best out of their team.

Being a good boss begins with caring about the people who work for you. Cast your mind back to the bosses in your past that you liked and the ones you hated. What was it about the ones you liked that made you learn more, achieve more and be better at your job?

Was it their personality and how it did or didn’t gel with yours? Was it their leadership style and how it meshed with your values? Was it their training or experience that created their method of management?

Or, did your boss’s impact have more to do with where you were in your own growth and development? The reality is, relationships are fluid and completely subjective, and chances are, that boss you thought was terrible, was terrific to someone else in the organization. So, is it possible to have a set of standards that makes you a great boss to all your employees? Maybe not, but a good start is to consider the questions above and be honest with yourself about your answers. You should be able to check off all but the last question, which is a little trickier. The answer to that one is, good leaders are always learning to lead – everyday.