Do you think a workplace where your boss talked to you only if you’d done something wrong would be a crummy place to work?

Someone I recently met described where she used to work as being that way. She made the observation so calmly.

Detached even. Like the situation was one of those it-is-what-it-is kind of things.

To me, the lack of communications as well as her acceptance of it was sad.

How awful would it be to work for an organization like that? How could any senior executive of a company where that happens, allow it to happen? Why would any boss think that communicating only bad news is communicating enough?

To be successful, you have to have your heart in your business and your business in your heart. ~Thomas J. Watson

I spent over 20 years in executive positions in Fortune 500 companies. As the pressures to please Wall Street grew and grew over the years, employees came to be viewed more and more as a means to a profitable end.

Employee engagement, inclusion, and leadership development were words that were trotted out when it was politically expedient to do so. But sadly those were the first programs that were cut when profit margins weren’t as big as someone expected them to be.

When I would challenge bosses for cutting the training budget yet again, they’d tell me I didn’t get it.

In one respect they were right:  I didn’t get why CEOs who (on average) earn 331 times more than their average worker wouldn’t consider rolling back executive comp instead of short-changing growing employees’ skill sets.

But I digress.

To me, a good boss who is an effective leader:

• connects and interacts with direct reports regularly and does so whether the topic is a positive one or not 
• sees employee development as one of his/her primary job responsibilities so s/he regularly provides coaching and feedback
• builds a culture of engagement where ongoing discussion occurs and healthy debate is encouraged
• talks to employees about things other than work
• understands that all work gets done by and through people
• communicates good news and bad news so everyone stays in the loop
• encourages his/her team to communicate with one another

Smart leaders today, we have found, engage with employees in a way that resembles an ordinary person-to-person conversation more than it does a series of commands from on high. Furthermore, they initiate practices and foster cultural norms that instill a conversational sensibility throughout their organizations. Chief among the benefits of this approach is that it allows a large or growing company to function like a small one. By talking with employees, rather than simply issuing orders, leaders can retain or recapture some of the qualities—operational flexibility, high levels of employee engagement, tight strategic alignment—that enable start-ups to outperform better-established rivals. ~Boris Groysberg and Michael Slind in Leadership Is a Conversation.

I understand why the individual I met now works someplace else.

I’d want to as well.

What about you?

Image source before quote:  morgueFile.com