October 16 is National Boss’s Day, the day employees thank their bosses for their contributions to the workforce. To honor the day, we’ve created a list of five characteristics good bosses share. Where does yours fit in?

1. Flexibility. Bosses, from middle managers to C-level executives, face changes during the course of their jobs. These days, it might have to do more with downsizing or restructuring, but good company times bring upheavals, too.

A good boss reacts to change in a proactive way. She supports her organization by making the changes it requires. At the same time, she communicates clearly and respectfully to her employees about upcoming changes. Her behavior informs employees’ perspective of the change, affecting their reactions. A panicked manager can bring down an entire team. A good manager knows this, and reacts to change with poise.

2. Knowledge. A good boss knows his company, his field, and his employees. He helps his company grow and prosper by executing the tasks required of him. His knowledge of his field helps him suggest new innovations, directions, and projects that will benefit the company.

He also knows his employees’ personalities well enough to know how they feel about their jobs. He regularly drops in and talks to them, learning about their concerns, ideas, and achievements. That way, employees feel supported, and the boss can help drive individuals and the team in the direction it needs to go. The company benefits as a result.

3. Job satisfaction. If a boss doesn’t like her job, she transmits her dismay to her team. The individuals in her team suffer as a result. Have you ever had a boss who does things half-assed? Or one so insecure in her position that she tries too hard to control her workforce? It doesn’t make for a good working experience–or a good team.

4. Organizational concern. You might think the best bosses are concerned more with their employees than their company. This is not the case. An employee-centric boss may bend to his employees’ needs, but they won’t see him as much of a savior if he drives his team or company into the ground.

A good boss works to secure his organization’s good fortune, ideally creating more jobs in the process. He balances his organization’s needs with those of his employees. If the interests of his organization clash with his employees, he is a successful liaison between the two. He knows that being a boss isn’t only about his employees, or about his own career advancement. It is about mobilizing his workers to do a good job for the organization.

5. Respect. A good boss treats coworkers with respect, no matter what level of the organization those people operate in. He respects people as individuals, regardless of age, working background, race, religion, or political beliefs. He recognizes that each of his employees provide the company with a valuable service. That service matters more than an employee’s belief structure or background. Not being respectful fosters fear and resentment–hardly the ingredients for a successful team.

If you’re an employee, wish your boss Happy Boss’s Day with a card, gift, or friendly email. If you’re a boss, Happy Boss’s Day!

The WSJ takes a closer look at what makes the Oracle of Omaha in modern times:

Mr. Buffett’s skill at picking publicly traded stocks pales alongside the value he has added to the company through other means.

Throughout Mr. Buffett’s long career, he has changed tack repeatedly. At this point, he is on a course most investors will no longer be able to follow.

Good point. As it stands, most investors can only hope to follow Buffett’s original value investing course. His style is now so highly individualized and conditional that emulators have to be both incredibly wealthy and connected to keep pace.

I reckon it only adds to his intrigue.

I never heard of National Boss’s Day until yesterday. Did the National Boss Day people set up a hardcore PR campaign or something? This was simply not celebrated during my office days, which admittedly took place not too long ago.

In honor of boss’s day, which I am celebrating by almost being my own boss (with an obligation to provide you with excellent content), I create a list honoring the five worst bosses I’ve encountered during my career.

Boss #1: The Del Mar Fair Breast-Gazer

My first job ever was at a sausage stand in North County San Diego’s Del Mar Fair. Yes, I know what you’re thinking. My boss must have been thinking the same thing. He hired, monitored me, and fired me by talking to my breasts.

If you’re a woman, you know what I’m talking about. Some men make eye contact between breast oglings. This guy never made eye contact.

Boss #2: The Well-Meaning Absentee

This boss was cheerful and friendly during meetings. She almost always smiled. However, she did nothing to help her employees. If you wanted to talk to her face-to-face, you usually had to wait a week. She didn’t tell you how to get ahead, nor how you might be falling behind. She didn’t acknowledge your projects or good work. She was sweet, smiled, and did absolutely nothing to help.

She just didn’t seem to know what she was doing.

Boss #3: The Concerned Micromanager

This boss micromanaged by constantly monitoring his team, either by dropping in on them nine times a day (via seagull management), or by emailing a constant stream of questions about their work.

I don’t work well under these kinds of circumstances. I seize up and get so nervous that my productivity goes down.

Micromanager noticed my lack of enthusiasm, so he called me into his office, where he informed me that I struck him as the kind of person who didn’t have many goals in life.

Thankfully, he moved on to a different project where he didn’t have to deal with other human beings.

Boss #4: The Outshiner

This boss was incredibly concerned with creating a team that outshone her competition (the six other middle managers on the floor). She was all about numbers. If the analytics showed that her team’s numbers were top-notch, she would gain recognition and a coveted promotion.

So she drove us to build numbers without any further explanation or motivation. This led to an embittered, alienated team effect not augmented by the fact that other teams performed better than we did every quarter.

Boss #5: The Backpedaler

An organizational nightmare can disarm even the most skilled of managers. This manager, an otherwise excellent communicator, was no exception. He told us something different almost every week. When someone brought up what he had said the week before, he would claim he never said that. So his employees spent most of their time floating in informational mid-air.

Boss #6: The Bad Hippy

This unsuccessful entrepreneur takes the bad-boss cake. Not only did he operate an illegal shop, hiring people as contractors with stringent requirements that would legally entitle them to salaried pay, but he did nothing to insulate his contractors from his wild mood swings, chewing out an unlucky few while lavishly praising others.

He also looked like a hippy–hence the title–disproving my long-held belief that peaceniks were also peaceful.

Anyone else have a bad boss tale to share?

From Conde Nast Portfolio:

Citigroup’s Sallie Krawcheck, one of the highest-profile women on Wall Street, will step down, according to the Wall Street Journal. She heads Citigroup’s wealth-management unit, which is being moved into the bank’s institutional group as a part of a broad restructuring.

And then in June, Lehman fired its chief financial officer Erin Callan after investors raised questions about the bank’s financial statements. Lehman’s bankruptcy filing early last week is seen by some as vindication for Callan.

Journalist Megan Barnett wisely points out that while investment banks recently fired several high-ranking women, the fact remains that there aren’t many investment banks left, either.

Does Krawcheck’s layoff mean anything for the women’s movement? Does it mean anything at all?

Looking at this from a women’s interest perspective, the moral of the story is that Wall Street will fire executives when in a pinch, whether they’re female or not. The message to women is that they, too, can become Mistresses of the Universe. Victory! Except that women, too, can be fired at the turn of the market. Darn.

There’s so much contradictory news circulating through the Internet today that I can’t make sense of what women’s interest means anymore:

1) Men with egalitarian attitudes about the role of women in society earn significantly less on average than men who hold more traditional views about women’s place in the world, according to a study being reported today. (Washington Post)

Moral: Empirical evidence has shown that men who know their place, and a woman’s place, make more money.

Message: Real men make more money than sissy-boys. Feminist egalitarianism victimizes men. Here’s the math to prove it.

2) A quote from Norla, a small-town American woman, on voting for Sarah Palin: “…if not [Palin], it’s just the old-boys network again.” Palin’s small-town credentials appeal to Norla, although she has questions about Palin’s experience. “But what the heck? A lot of people didn’t have experience before they got in, and she’s got a lot of good common sense.” (Salon)

Moral: This small-town woman thinks Palin, by virtue of being a woman, cannot possibly also be part of the old boys’ network. Gender matters more than experience or connections.

Message: You’re pro-woman if you vote for a woman. Any woman. Regardless of whether you agree with her viewpoints or not.

3) (Republican pollster Kellyanne) Conway said more women will vote than men this fall – as has happened in every presidential election since 1964 – and will be a deciding factor. Less than two months ago, Mr. McCain was trailing Mr. Obama significantly among women, and “now they are now pretty much neck and neck.” (Dallas Morning News)

Moral: Women have the power to sway the elections.

Question: Are you more pro-woman if you vote for a woman, in the flesh, or a man whom you believe stands for women more than the actual woman?

I don’t understand where women stand anymore. ’70s-style feminism is clearly defined in my mind, but it’s been a long time since then. What do women want most these days? Symbolic strength? A voice from a sister? Traditional roles?

Anyone?

Traditional dogma says black or navy business dress is the best way to express a serious, dominant office persona. After reading this Spiegel article, I’m not so sure:

A recent study confirms previous reports that athletes wearing red uniforms win competitions more often than opponents dressed in other colors. According the report, published in the journal Nature in 2005, athletes dressed in red had a measurable advantage. An article published in the Journal of Sports Sciences in early 2008 determined that football teams wearing red had a disproportionately higher rate of both winning home games and securing the title than teams wearing either yellow or orange.

“From studies on animals and humans, we know that red is used to signal dominance,” [one of the study’s authors] told SPIEGEL ONLINE. “Among humans, rage is associated with reddening skin, which results from increased blood circulation,” the researchers wrote in their article for Nature.
A 2007 study published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology gave clear evidence that exposure to red “impairs performance” and can trigger an “avoidance motivation,” in much the same way as a stop sign.

Conclusion: Bosses, especially managers with lots of direct reports, should wear read. The alarming associations with this color will heighten employees’ anxiety to levels, inducing harder work. The boss should then avoid lingering in order to avoid impairing employees’ performance.

An About.com article drives home the point that red promotes alarmism:

Red is considered a power color for women; it’s not unusual to see women senators wearing red suits.

As in, listen to me. Now.

According to this MSNBC article,

Wear a chic all-black outfit to work, and don’t smile as often as you’re inclined. You’ll be seen as assertive and directed. Studies have found that people in black uniforms are viewed as more dominant figures, while the act of keeping a neutral face is associated with higher status and power in a work environment.

People in black are more dominant—until the person in the alarming red suit walks into the room.

Like Alabama Head Basketball Coach Mark Gottfried, pictured above, stressing his team into performing well. (Image: AP/Decatur Daily).

What do you think would happen if you wore red to work?

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1) Mr. Montgomery Burns

The quintessential “evil capitalist” boss, Mr. Burns is best known for pursuing money at the expensive of safety, public opinion, and the well-being of his employees. As Springfield’s richest citizen (Forbes estimated his net worth at $16.8 billion during one episode), Mr. Burns runs the town power plant with an iron fist and embodies many corporate America stereotypes, such as forgetting the names of employees, surrounding himself with sycophants (Smithers) and stopping at nothing to increase his own net worth.

2) Tony Soprano

As the boss of the DiMeo crime family, Tony Soprano cannot be as open about his wealth-creating pedigree as Mr. Burns. However, by operating under the guise of a waste management consultant, Soprano manages to carry out all the functions befitting of an organized crime ring: murdering malcontents, covering up his misdeeds, and collecting the handsome fees his line of work entitles him to. He even manages to score a little cash from sporting bets on the side.

3) Captain Kirk

Played by the legendary William Shatner, Captain Kirk is the head honcho of the Starship Enterprise on Star Trek. While his time at the helm wasn’t always smooth (some turbulence is to be expected when you’re commandeering a ship through the vast reaches of space), Kirk could always be counted on as an innovative and quick-thinking leader. These qualities helped him in becoming the youngest Starfleet captain at 34 years old, as well as the first captain to bring his starship back with minimal damage following a five year mission.

4) William Adama

From bars to battleships, William Adama earned his stripes as Commanding Officer of the Battlestar Galactica. His job responsibilities were a bit different than the average middle manager, encompassing such tasks as evading enemy fire, testing military dispositions, and going on covert, illegal surveillance missions. Make no mistake, though: the specter of constant battle and warfare made Adama a hardened and focused leader indeed!

5) Michael Scott

Michael Scott’s job as regional manager of the Dunder Mifflin paper distribution company is a bit less intense than commanding the Battlestar Galactica, but “The Office” wouldn’t be the same without him. Scott is the archetypal “social outcast” boss, woefully lacking in people skills yet still managing to hold a high opinion of himself. It is not uncommon to see Scott pouting with his head in his hands during one scene and acting like the king of the castle the next. He is also somewhat of an “office clown” who finds his jokes either miss the mark or wind up hurting the person they were aimed at. All in all, though, his employees don’t seem to mind working for him.