How do you like your boss? What do you think of him? Douche and sweetie? Petty tyrant? Real leader? Zadrot finished? Handy-ass moron? Oh God, what a man?
I counted here - I had twenty bosses in my life. Among them were heads of departments, deputy directors, general directors, business owners. Everyone, of course, can pick up some definition, not always censored. Some went up the hill, some went down. Some may be in jail.
Of these twenty people, I am not sincerely grateful to all. Only thirteen. Because they are goats. That's right, with a capital letter.
A goat is a boss who does not let you get bored. Constantly sets new goals, increases plans, makes you move, does not allow you to relax. The goat constantly increases the pressure. And you, under this pressure, grow stronger.
There were not goats, but excellent guys. I counted seven. Leaders like Brezhnev. Under their rule, you are completely stagnant. You do not develop, do not reach the top, do not move up the career ladder, do not increase your income.
Working with non-goats is like a dream. He came to the factory, left after a couple of years - and as if he did not work at all. Qualification did not jump, there were no interesting projects, I did not even quarrel with anyone. As Makarevich sang, "and his life is like fruit kefir."
Determining whether your boss is a goat or not is very simple. If you do not grow in some measurable indicators, then he is not a goat. If your output, sales, number or speed of projects, position, salary, influence are constantly growing, then your boss is a goat.
The goats have an interesting history. While you are working with a goat, you hate him because he interferes with your homeostasis, i.e. desire for peace. He came in the morning, poured some coffee, and got ready to program quietly, and then - bam, this Kozlina comes running and sets some hellish task. You just think - well, goat!
And when you leave the goat, especially in another company, you understand how this person helped you. Especially if you came under the command of some darling. You understand how great it was to strive for something, run, fall, get up and run again. The goat pressed, but you did not break, and became stronger.
For example, under the pressure of one goat, I alone transferred the plant from 1C 7.7 to SCP in two months. Under the pressure of another goat, in the first year of work in the franchise, I passed 5 certifications 1C: Specialist, and 1C: Project Manager for dessert. Certifications then were face-to-face, field, and I did not miss a single one, because I so wanted a goat. There was a goat who made me write an incredibly cool production planning system in a week, and with his predecessor, not a goat, I was struggling for six months. The most powerful goats forced me to put things in order in warehousing, purchasing and accounting.
If you are lucky, you will meet MegaGoat in your life. I had one boss.
An ordinary goat sets a goal and demands its achievement. MegaKozel adds a condition - to achieve the goal in a certain way, using specific methods. For example, not just complete a project, but do it according to Scrum. Establish relations between the two departments, but not with regulations and automation, but with boundary management methods.
Of course, it is impossible to use a technique that you do not know. Have to study. Moreover, in the end, you know it better than MegaGoat himself - he only read a book, he did not apply it in practice. But MegaKozel is MegaKozel. When the goal is achieved and you decide to relax, he calls you and forces you to systematize your experience, talk about the practice of applying methods, hold a seminar, write an article on the corporate portal, etc.
MegaKozel makes you constantly learn. He literally, literally literally, gave a book or lectures, and then conducted an exam, in the form of a personal interview. Several years have passed, and I still can remember what SSGR, CGR, NPV are, how many Goleman leadership models, who is Eric Trist, why Taylor is better than Mayo, where is this fucking gorilla and why no one saw her, I will name the types personality according to Belbin, I will explain the secret of Morning Star's success and why, in fact, Diesel Gate happened in Volkswagen.
MegaKozel is, of course, better than Goat. But MegaGoats are few. I've only met one in my life. And, yes, when I was the head of programmers at the plant, I was also a MegaGoat for them. I brought books, demanded reading, then interviewed. He made me analyze my own work, explain successes and failures in terms of management methods, and not “damn it, well, it turned out, what else is needed.”
So, if your boss is a Goat, rejoice. The more goaty he is, the faster and better you develop. Well, do not be upset if you are led by a darling.
In this case, there is a workaround - Kozel from the outside, at least in a professional way. Sometimes such people are called coaches or mentors, but this is not the case - they will not tell you the truth, therefore they will not create the necessary pressure. And without pressure, you won't start to resist.
For example, if you are a programmer, then find another programmer who will crap your code. He will tell you to your face that you are a hand-assed shitcoder. You won’t tell yourself this, and the client doesn’t cut it, even the project manager won’t delve into it. The goat will not be shy.
Let the Goat constantly irritate you, keep you in good shape, and do not let you relax. The more diverse the topics on which the Goat can expertly pour shit on you, the better. Your position and experience do not matter at all. The MegaKozel mentioned above, a very wealthy person, did not even try to take a bucket of slops on his head from me. Therefore, it constantly changed, developed and moved forward.
Well, if you're really lucky, you'll turn into a Self-Goat, and stop depending on the presence of external pressure. You will set goals for yourself, you will not let yourself relax, you will push yourself. Even if you are completely satisfied with the external environment, even if it is a goat one.
HimselfKozel knows how to infuriate even the Goats who lead him. Because he never has enough. Not pay, but pressure. He literally comes to his Goat and says - let me do this, and I need a higher plan, and in general, some kind of you, Goat, not a Goat. Come on, horns to the floor and push me.
If you are the boss, then think about whether you are a goat or not. It's very easy and simple to be a darling, I know I've tried. Everyone treats you well, they respect you, maybe even love you, you are not demanding, you will always help, find a solution, save you from difficulties, support you in word and deed, forgive you for mistakes and protect you from superior Goats.
But, to be honest and heartfelt, you do it not for people, but for yourself. You want comfort for yourself. It’s convenient for you when you are loved, everything is so smooth, calm, without crises. Enjoy life.
The trouble is, your people don't develop while you're a darling. You understand this, but close your eyes. Like, who wants to develop, he will do it. And I will help if asked. Only he will not ask, because there is no reason. There is no pressure. There is no goat. Sit together, in warm fruit kefir, and disperse, without any increase in development.
The reason for the desire for peace is the same - homeostasis. This is the ability of the system to self-regulate, maintain internal stability, by performing simple actions. This is the desire to stay in the comfort zone, to spend less energy.
Moreover, both the employee and the manager have this desire. It has many manifestations and names. For example, do not rock the boat, do not drive a wave, outweigh tasks by three nails, lower the brakes, etc.
The disgusting thing is that homeostasis is inherent in a person by nature, both in physiological terms and in terms of developing knowledge, skills, achieving goals, etc. Maintaining the current state of affairs is usually easier than getting up and moving somewhere.
This is where Kozlina helps. The person himself, the employee, cannot and does not want to overcome the threshold beyond which development begins. And external influence helps him in this, forces, motivates.
From here follows a simple formula: you need to make it more comfortable to develop than to sit on your ass.
Roughly speaking, to shift the center, the goal of homeostasis. Let the natural mechanism maintain a state of motion, and not a state of rest. Let peace become uncomfortable. As in a beautiful song of Soviet times - "fatigue is forgotten, children sway, and again hooves, like a heart beat, and we have no peace, burn, but live ...".
Checking the action of "homeostasis of movement" is easy. I'll give you a couple of examples.
If you have ever played any sport or fitness on a regular basis, then you can probably confirm that as soon as you miss a workout, you feel uncomfortable. Especially if you practice every day.
If you have trained yourself to read books regularly, and then stopped for a while, then you feel like you are missing something important.
If you decide that you will not watch TV at all, then you quickly wean from it. Then, by chance, or during the holidays, you look once, you don’t have time to leave in time, it drags you out, and after a couple of hours you feel uncomfortable, as if you are doing something out of the ordinary.
The comfort zone just shifts. Homeostasis is stupid, it doesn't matter to him which state to maintain. If it is comfortable to lie on the sofa, he will do everything so that you are exactly there. If you feel comfortable doing 100 push-ups every day, homeostasis will help you not to quit.
Efforts are needed only to shift the comfort zone. Of course, it is better and easier to do it little by little, without jumping from the couch immediately to Everest - there will not be enough willpower to overcome the threshold. Willpower must be saved, there is not much of it, and it is not capable of big jumps.
In the case of the Goat, everything is simpler, because only his goat willpower is enough to shift the comfort zone of the team. The rest need only obey and dejectedly wander to where this one with horns and a beard is galloping. For employees, the comfort zone shifts free of charge, without the cost of self-motivation, goal-setting, and self-persuasion. The whole burden of overcoming the threshold of homeostasis falls on the goat's shoulders.
And the head-darling, alas, is more like a weak-willed rag. He values his own homeostasis, his comfort zone above all else, sacrificing the development opportunities of all his employees. Although, he has an iron-clad excuse: whoever wants to, will develop himself. True, it is not clear, why the hell is he needed then?
Yes, in the end I will say - do not confuse Kozlov with Morons. The goat presses with goals, tasks, plans. Debil just pushes. Yells, humiliates, induces a sense of guilt, substitutes, offends. It asserts itself at your expense, in short.
A goat can also behave like a Moron if he is still young. Little kid. It goes away with experience. But even the Little Kid will set you a goal. And the Debil just shit in the soul and, joyful, go to the next victim.
Find yourself a goat. Love Goat. Become the goat yourself.
Source: habr.com