Six Questions To Ask As A Superboss

From Sydney Finkelstein's book, Superbosses: How Exceptional Leaders Master the Flow of Talent, comes these great questions you should routinely ask yourself as a leader:

1. Have you answered the "why do we exist" question for your team? Could all of your team members share this answer with you right now?
2. Do you have people on your team who have followed non-traditional paths to their jobs, or do you find yourself attracted to cookie-cutter backgrounds?
3. Are people on your team energized to come to work in the morning? How would you even know?
4. Are you inspiring people to believe that they can achieve great things?
5. Are you removing the bureaucratic barriers and hierarchy that get in the way of meaningful interaction and getting the job done?
6. How often do you actively teach people how to do something, as opposed to just telling  people what to do?

How To Be A Superboss

"Superbosses embrace certain practices that good bosses don't, and they do even more of the productive things that good bosses do," says Syney Finkelstein, author of the book, Superbosses: How Exceptional Leaders Master the Flow of Talent.

What's more, according to Finkelstein's findings from ten years of research and two hundred interviews, superbosses focus on identifying promising newcomers, inspiring their best work, and launching them into highly successful careers, while also expanding their own networks and building stronger companies.

Most important, "regenerating the talent pool is the single most important thing any leader can do to survive and prosper," adds Finkelstein.

Sydney Finkelstein

Superbosses also do this:

• Create master-apprentice relationships
• Rely on the cohort effect
• Say good-bye on good terms
• Adapt the job or organization to fit the talent
• Take chances on unconventional talent
• Look for new talent pools
• Hire on the sport
• Accept churn

Finkelstein shared these additional insights into what makes a superboss:

Question: What skill do superbosses possess that most bosses don't even think of pursuing?

Finkelstein: Superbosses are geniuses at helping other people accomplish more than they ever thought possible. This superboss approach is not "team-building" or "mentoring," but something much deeper, that transform proteges from talented apprentices to stars and superstars in their own right.

Question: What is an example of a counter-intuitive thing that superbosses do?

Finkelstein: Superbosses don't fixate on talent retention, like most companies do. If some of your best people leave, your reputation for producing talent grows, and you become a talent magnet. Nobody gets stale, and you become the employer of choice for new blood, known for the person to work for if you want to accelerate your career.

Question: How can job seekers identify superbosses to work for in order to advance their careers?

Finkelstein: While there are a bunch of key markers job seekers should pay attention to, there are three key questions I'd want to ask if I'm looking for a superboss:

1. Do you like to delegate big assignments to your subordinates, or do you work closely with them on key projects? You want a boss who does both!
2. How often do people leave your team to accept a bigger offer elsewhere? What's that like when it happens? Beware the boss who can't think of any examples, or whose response implies disloyalty more than pride.
3. Do you stay in touch with former subordinates who have left the company? You want a resounding yes to this one.

Finkelstein is the Steven Roth Professor of Management at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College and the director of Tuck's Center for Leadership. He has published eight previous books.

Six Powerful Questions To Ask As A Leader

From Sydney Finkelstein's book, Superbosses: How Exceptional Leaders Master the Flow of Talent, comes these great questions you should routinely ask yourself as a leader:

1. Have you answered the "why do we exist" question for your team? Could all of your team members share this answer with you right now?
2. Do you have people on your team who have followed non-traditional paths to their jobs, or do you find yourself attracted to cookie-cutter backgrounds?
3. Are people on your team energized to come to work in the morning? How would you even know?
4. Are you inspiring people to believe that they can achieve great things?
5. Are you removing the bureaucratic barriers and hierarchy that get in the way of meaningful interaction and getting the job done?
6. How often do you actively teach people how to do something, as opposed to just telling  people what to do?

Ten Questions A Superboss Should Ask

Here are ten questions (or bundles of questions) you should ask yourself to ensure you are thinking and acting like a superboss. These are from Sydney Finkelstein's new book, Superbosses.

1. Do you have a specific vision for your work that energizes you, and that you use to energize and inspire your team?
2. How often do people leave your team to accept a bigger offer elsewhere? What's that like when it happens?
3. Do you push your reports to meet only the formal goals set for the team, or are there other goals that employees sometimes also strive to achieve?
4. How do you go about questioning your own assumptions about the business? How do you get your team to do the same about their own assumptions?
5. How do you balance the need to delegate responsibilities to team members with the need to provide hands-on coaching to them? How much time do you usually spend coaching employees?
6. When promoting employees, do you ever put them into challenging jobs where they potentially might fail? If so, how do you manage the potential risk? And what happens if they do fail?
7. How much affection or connection do members of your team feel with one another? Do people tend to spend time out of the office socializing? What is the balance of competition and collaboration on the team?
8. Do you continue to stay in touch with employees who have left to work elsewhere?
9. Have any former employees of yours gone on to have particularly noteworthy careers, either within your organization or elsewhere? If so, how many? 
10. What is the culture like in your team with respect to how much energy you devote to nurturing or developing individuals versus getting the job done?