Don’t Be That Boss: How Great Communicators Get the Most Out of Their Employees

Being a bad boss isn’t necessarily about being evil, manipulative, greedy, or bad-mannered. Not that those bosses don’t exist, but many of them were long-ago drummed out of the workforce. Mark Wiskup, instead, looks at a more subtle view of “that” boss: the one that does not value communication as a crucial management skill. 

At some point or another, most if not all employees will complain about their boss, sometimes undeservedly, sometimes not. In either case, being any type of boss is hard. Everyone tells you what you should be doing from vendors, customers, suppliers, and partners to your workers.

In Don’t Be That Boss: How Great Communicators Get the Most Out of Their Employees, Mark Wiskup encourages CEOs and managers with empathy but also takes them to task to work harder and not be “that” boss, the one that who does not make employees feel good about working for them, and more importantly, working better.

Many people assume good communication is primarily a sales issue, but it’s just as important for a leader to communicate effectively and positively with—for example—their purchasing people, setting the tone for how motivated they will be to care enough about the costs, fighting for favorably conditions because they want to based on the standards you set.  In this sense, how you communicate with your employees can directly impact efficiency and bottom-line margin.

Employees will usually do only what they think they have to do consistently. The onus of changing that is on you. The most successful leaders hone their communication skills every day.  

When an employee says aloud or thinks, “I just never know what the boss wants,” you’re “that” boss. Instead, you want them glued to you, thinking that this is the best place for them to be during lousy or abundant economic times.

The founder of Mark Wiskup Communications Inc., he personifies the belief that having powerful communication skills means having a critical advantage over the competition, stronger relationships with good customers and critical prospects, and the respect and admiration of colleagues and loyal employees.