Are You a Self-Centered Boss?

I have a 2-month-old daughter – and boy, is she self-centered.

Not in the arrogant, ego-maniacal way you’re thinking, however. I was a psych major in college, and took a lot of child development classes as a result. One of the things they teach you is that infants are, by definition, self-centered: they are literally focused entirely on themselves. The wants and desires of those around them mean nothing: the only thing which matters in their entire tiny worlds is satisfying their own urgent needs, and doing it right now.

When my baby’s hungry at 3am, she doesn’t say, “Daddy’s got one of his big NYC corporate team building activities tomorrow, maybe I’d better wait until he wakes up to tell him.” No, she wails her face off. Dirty diaper during dinner? Sorry, can’t wait – here’s what my shriek sounds like. Tired, baby? Just go to sleep, then! Nope – gonna sit right here and screech inconsolably until you walk me around the apartment for an hour.

I think you get the idea: when you’re a baby, the only person you think about, care about, concern yourself with, is you.

The same can sometimes be said about adults, especially in the workplace.

As a business owner, department director or group manager, you’ve got your share of constituencies to deal with both above and below: senior managers, direct reports, clients, board members, and colleagues at your management level, to name a few. All are depending on you in one shape or another, and how you choose to deal with each of these stakeholders says an awful lot about both your management style and you, personally.

Here’s a little test to determine where your focus of attention falls as a boss.

Do you:

1. Care about your own deadlines more than those of others?
2. Take your staff’s ideas, opinions on concerns into consideration before making decisions?
3. Find that your direct reports sometimes go “over your head” to get what they need?
4. Get told that you impose unreasonable expectations on your direct reports?
5. Care little about how your actions affect workplace morale, or motivate staff?
6. Care about delivering results you’ve promised more than recognizing performance?

If you answered “yes” to any of these (or even just felt a tingle of familiarity), than the perception at your workplace may be that you are a self-centered boss.

Not that this is necessarily a bad thing, mind you.

After all, this is work: the object of work, and your role as a boss, is to drive staff to produce results which satisfy clients (especially true in the service industry, where most knowledge workers reside).

Yet still, as a boss, your team looks up to you for direction, as well as to set the tone of the workplace environment: corporate culture is often created in the boss’s image. If you are someone who puts the feelings, concerns and happiness of your employees way down at the bottom of the totem pole, this is a message which will resonate loud and clear through the ranks – resulting, I would argue, in decreased employee motivation, diminished teamwork and, ultimately, less productivity and weakened results.

This work week, think about your management style, and how it impacts the office. How much of your action is dedicated to helping yourself do your job, versus helping your staff do theirs?