COLUMN By K. V.

Rao

H
EY JUG, JUG …,” called out my friend,
the Factory Manager Shyam, on re-
turning home. Wagging its tail, all
excited, Jug his pet dog scampered up
to him. Shyam blasted the choicest of
abuses, and Jug grinned gleefully, for
he never understood a word. This was
a daily routine ... Well, Jug was named
after Jagdish – his big boss in the office,
a rather stern fellow of the old school,
rans to contend with.
Much has been written on leadership types of bosses. Job-
Monster lists 21 types (please see chart on the next page). The
titles are self-explanatory…
You would have experienced some of these, or hybrids and
faced your own challenges. There are no easy fixes, but here
are some good practical insights that may help.
“Today’s youngsters quit their jobs, mostly due to a bad
boss than the job itself,” says Shaily Gupta, HR Advisor, who
was CHRO with PWC and Deloitte, Singapore. In youth-
ful startups you often see a 25-year-old boss managing a
23-year-old, with little maturity differential. This is a new
conundrum the youth face. Shaily is a veteran with 30 years’
experience and re-
counts her early times,
with a tough and most
demanding boss.
She fondly remem-
bers the humane side
where he once picked
up a bottle of cough
thought, overtakes the diversity of thought” and
impacts the quality of discussions in some Asian
settings, says Shubha.
Style vs Substance
In dealing with bosses, there’s a common refrain
that ‘the bite is not as bad as the bark’. Being dis-
cerning, developing the habit of sifting and sieving
through styles of communication, to the substance
is an art. In hindsight, I have learnt some of the best
lessons from the most difficult and tough bosses.
Paying Forward
We are familiar with ragging and bullying in col-
leges, and often when you start with a relatively
younger boss, there is this tendency to mete out the
treatment he received from his boss. It’s a form of
perpetrating the pain. It also works positively, there
are bosses who pay forward in mentoring others as
JOBMONSTER LISTS 21 they themselves were helped. It’s part of the deal, and need
TYPES OF BOSSES to be taken in stride.

Bosses
syrup for her, as he
had seen her coughing Managing Adversity & Glory
1. The Martyr Boss 12. The World-on-his-
in the meeting. Empa- Great lessons are learnt, when closely perceiving the artful
2. The Screamer Boss shoulders Boss
thy and humane touch bosses, handling times of crises and glory at work. It has

or
3. The Fearmonger Boss 13. The Buzzword Boss
points of a boss are the tutored me at first-hand on how to walk through both these
4. The Manipulator Boss 14. The Buddy Boss
most endearing – at all extreme situations in career with equal confidence and ease.
5. The Bumbler Boss 15. The Two-minute Boss
times and all ages. It’s like learning fire walking, with a confident master.
6. The Clueless Boss 16. The Patronizing Boss

Crosses?
where bosses cloaked in tiger skin took
pride in howling at subordinates. Shy-
am founded a new coping method, by
naming his pet dog after the boss and
giving it all back, every evening.
Like one’s parents, we don’t get to
choose our bosses. One learns to deal
with them. They come in varied shapes
and personalities, and no matter how
many self-help books you read on how
to manage a boss, having a good boss
is indeed a true blessing, that enriches
your life and career just as a bad one
makes you feel crucified to a cross. And
in between, you will have many also-
Bosses are not made
in heaven, they too
trudged along their
own career paths with
their own experiences.
Shubha Narayanan, a
leading OD Consult-
ant in Singapore who
works with many global companies, says, “Bosses range from
‘highly secure’ to the ‘most insecure’… That sense of ‘security’,
manifests in the quality of their relationships with their sub-
ordinates.” Every boss is a subordinate too, in most settings.
Their personalities and leadership styles are shaped by the
styles of the bosses they worked for. In some companies
there is an ‘infectious culture’ that has a rub-on effect on all
its managers. Indeed, figuratively bosses “bring the entire
village along”… i.e their whole life experiences to office.
Looking at multicultural settings, relating with a boss
from a different culture, can add new twists. Attitudes and
motivations can differ with culture. Shubha shares about
western bosses “who do take work with a bit more humour
and light-heartedness, than the seriousness of an Asian boss”.
They live and let live, and manage better work-life balance.
7. The Old-Schooler 17. The Idiot Boss
8. The God Boss 18. Lone Wolf Boss
9. The Teflon Boss 19. The Perfectionist
10. The What Boss? 20. The Eccentric
11. The Paranoid Boss 21. The Great Boss
https://hiring.monster.com/employer-
resources/workforce-management/
leadership-management-skills/types-of-bosses/
An Indian, Japanese, Singaporean or
Chinese, would deal differently – with
a much stronger cultural imprint of fol-
lowing convention, and find it harder to
break loose from precedence and be-
lieve in doing things the ‘right way’.
Asian bosses place a greater ‘loy-
alty premium’ on relationships with
the team, than westerners – who take
disagreements and debates, not neces-
sarily as symbols of dissent. “Speed of
Being Yourself
Mr R. Gopalakrishnan, an exemplary leader and mentor to
many including me, in his book What the CEO Really Wants
From You talks about ‘Authenticity’ as a core strength, albeit
hard to define. Trying to mimic what the boss expects without
being real can make you a good charlatan and may give you a
brief moment of glory, but sooner than later – doom awaits.
Being real and true to yourself, in myriad situations makes
you ‘natural’ and enduringly ‘consistent’.
Trusting Relationship
The ultimate truth, is about a strong and trusting relation-
ship you assiduously build with your boss. Learning to disa-
gree without being disagreeable helps. It does take a lot of
effort, a good deal of patience, tact and balancing, but once
trust is built it lasts long.
If you can imbibe and imbue all the best you see in all your
bosses, you will rise to becoming the best boss, yourself.
The author is Resident Director – ASEAN, Tata Sons Private Limited,
Singapore
The views expressed are personal

32 | BW BUSINESSWORLD | 08 - 22 October 2020 33 | BW BUSINESSWORLD | 08 - 22 October 2020