My Boss Loves Me – But do you love your boss?

I was struck by the billboard I passed recently on the Ballard Bridge that shouted out MY BOSS LOVES ME in bright lights and claimed a 97% employer satisfaction because of it.

Clearly having a boss that appreciates you is a great thing but I would argue it does not guarantee satisfaction because the feeling is not always mutual.

In my career I have had bosses that showed all the signs of loving me and the work I did for them based upon the reviews and rewards I received. However, I will admit to the fact that I did not always love those bosses. They had their fair share of leadership short-comings and a lot of the time it was because they shied away from truly expressing and exploring love and joy in the work place with me.

I’m not suggesting that the manager – employee relationship should be inappropriate or an over the top love fest for obvious reasons, but I am talking about taking the time and making the effort to be more open to exploring what drives love in the workplace for each individual as a way to ensure it is reciprocal.

In most organizations I would argue there is not too much unconditional love flying around. Rather it needs to be earned. For the employee that generally means performing well, being a dependable and adaptable team player that goes the extra mile to get the results the manager wants and needs. Put that all together and you will most likely be loved by your boss like the Billboard says.

Gaining the love in the other direction, the employee loves their boss, is a little harder to achieve. Several well-known research studies like a Gallup poll of more 1 million employed U.S. workers concluded that the No. 1 reason people quit their jobs is a bad boss or immediate supervisor.

“People leave managers not companies…in the end, turnover is mostly a manager issue,” Gallup wrote in its survey findings. The effect of poor management is widely felt. Gallup also determined that poorly managed work groups are on average 50 percent less productive and 44 percent less profitable than well-managed groups.

So if love in the workplace is unnatural to express in the first place, is conditional and is not necessarily reciprocal clearly we have our work cut out for us despite what this billboard is trying to get us to believe. Luckily right next to it was another billboard that screamed out GET YOUR DREAM ON.

To me the dream is a workplace where:

1) Real emotions are part of the conversation rather than just part of employee survey score.
2) Emotional intelligence is valued and developed at all levels of an organization.
3) Employees are loved by and love their managers because both individuals are committed to:

A) Keeping the work fun, meaningful and manageable
B) Having open and honest communications despite the perceived risks in doing so
C) Learning in relationship together while achieving the results that matter.

So I say dream big because life is short and as Ralph Waldo Emerson said:
“DON’T BE PUSHED BY YOUR PROBLEMS, BE LED BY YOUR DREAMS.”

I’m curious what your Workplace Billboard Dreams are. Once you have them identified, go ahead and put them out there in bright lights, you might be surprised by what emerges if you do.