If a good manager asks his workforce for their opinion of him he will receive their expressions of approval and be satisfied that he is doing a good job.

If a bad manager asks his workforce for their opinion then he too will receive their expressions of approval because as we all know, the best way to get a bad manager off your back is to agree with him.

The problem for the manager is how to find out if he is good, and adding value to the organisation, or if he is bad, interfering and preventing the workforce from performing tasks that they are perfectly capable of doing well on their own.

To get honest feedback we have to be able to look in the mirror.

The problem the boss faces is that his own behaviour distorts the reflection away from the true one towards the one that the workforce thinks he wants to see.

If a boss asks his workforce what they think of him the answer will be coloured by the fact that the boss is the person who decides wage increases, promotions and allocation of work.

The employee is going to find it very difficult to tell his boss something that he does not want to hear.

The responsibility therefore lies with the boss to create the environment in which the employees can provide a true reflection

This requires an understanding of what behaviour the boss exhibits that stops the employee providing a true reflection and the discipline to once having identified this behaviour, stop doing it.

What is the required answer to the question, Does my bum look big in this?

And what is the real answer.

The behaviour of the person asking the question determines the answer they get, not whether it is the right answer or not.

The behaviour of the Manager towards his workforce determines whether the workforce tell him the truth or not.

The Soft Skills that enable the Manager to behave so that what he hears is the truth, are the key skills for a Manager.

Juggling numbers has no value if the numbers that are being juggled do not represent the system they are alleged to model.

Peter A Hunter