There are tell-tale signs when your boss is afraid of you. He frequently ignores you or often fails to respond. He shoots down most of your ideas or steals them as his own. He restricts your interaction with others by giving you low-level impact jobs and prevents you from communicating with other units.
It is unfortunate when you end up with such a boss. Don’t engage in any head-on conflict with the boss. Instead, continue doing your job well, hone your soft skills, and continue leading from your confines.
Leadership Skills Can Be Learned
Like other soft skills, Leadership Skills can be learned and developed.
The main difference between hard and soft skills is the ease of measuring the skill level. You can measure the typing speed in words per minute, but it is more difficult to quantify his commitment and motivation.
A massive list of soft skills will help you determine which you may want to hone and develop. The common types needed in the workplace include collaboration, communication, problem-solving, time management, and leadership skills. The abundance of soft skill coaches and their proliferation in the web attest to their learnability.
The soft skills for leadership would include the following:
• Motivation – inspiring and influencing others
• Trustworthiness – truthfulness and doing what they promised
• Goal-setting – developing and achieving goals
• Commitment – dedication and focus to goals and objectives
In as much as soft skills are also called interpersonal skills or relationship skills, learning and developing them is best done working with others.
There is a Talent Gap for Leadership Skills
Leadership skills are needed in the workplace but can also be used in life outside work. Leadership is practiced at all levels of an organization and in all social units.
Deloitte University is part of a global company that focuses on trends in human capital and leadership. A study conducted by Adam Canwell for Deloitte points to the lack of leaders as the primary talent gap worldwide.
Eighty-six percent (86%) of the respondent organizations rates this issue as urgent or important. Only 13% answered that their organization is doing an excellent job in leadership development.
Start Leading From the Inside
It is time for employees to build upon their leadership skills, even if their current bosses get afraid of them. Most organizations, including the military, spend a lot to develop leaders from among their team members. Some trainees and some of the top echelon of the organization may not be fit to be in their position. The boss who is afraid of you may be one of them.
Many resources are available for aspiring employees with leadership potential to further their careers. Even if the boss has restricted your working space and peer circle, no one works alone. Within your limited circle, you can still sharpen your leadership and other interpersonal skills.
Outside of work, we are also part of the community, a church group, or a civic club. We always have other people around us to practice and enhance our leadership skills.