The Good Boss and Bad Boss

I guess, I need a blog more than ever before. I have tried to convince myself in the last week or so that I am not the "Arrogant MBA" recruiters and HR managers often talk about. Recruiters always talk about individuals who join their companies and then start looking at colleagues as "inferiors". As an MBA starting in this company after about 3 weeks I feel the following

(1) I am overpaid for what I do (on relative terms of course)
(2) I do not speak the language in which business is done here (For the most part)
(3) Expectations are much higher in terms of what I can achieve compared to peers in the same "age bracket" with a strong background who have been within the company for years.
(4) I learnt last year that incentives work on me (just like on everyone else) and I am starting all over again on the food-chain and I have no reason to feel like "I have achieved anything at all so far in the context I am in" and have a ton of incentives to go behind (including a fancy ROI calculator I got introduced to in my Finance 101 and am under more pressure than the peer group because of this "discovery" and "self-(destructive)-analysis" capabilities.
(5) My social network was so incredible when I was in INSEAD (as we fed each others egos 100% of the time and suddenly it has disappeared)

Now, lets start working with this assumption. I start with a handicap of 5 (borrowing Golf terminology for once) in this job compared to the regular employees here (Point 4 but the blissfully unawareness about responses to incentives can be good). In this context I am going to bring in an important B-School learning. Interestingly enough, without my Blog I would have actually forgotten that we discussed Incentives PASSIONATELY. I mean everyone had something to say about it when we discussed it in P2. Now that we know its an interestingly subject (or animal called the BOSS)

My OB professor about 1 year 2 months back said "People Join Companies and Leave Bosses". It was confirmed by a book I had read on the subject. The best business book of all times in my view "First break all the rules" describes the best manager of all times. They claim to have information about millions of employees and their behavior at work place thanks to being a "Survey company". Well, good for them. But it gave them some scary levels of credibility...now to what they have to say on the subject.

Great Managers
(1) Treat Individuals Differently, based on their strengths not weaknesses.
(2) Care about outcomes and not about the process followed (remember ethical behavior of course is a given).
(3) Is always there when he or she is needed by his team and coaches them NOT manages.
(4) Positivity is another trait, a great manager is an eternal optimist.
(5) Values life long learning for himself and the team.

And sadly, I do not see even one of the above traits in my current manager. He seems to be more interested in "Process" than "Results". Infact the way our groups goals are designed the "Result" seems almost certain with no risk. It pains me because I also think even after achieving the results "he does not see" there is almost a high risk of failure for the company and he does not see it at all as "its not our job".

Am I going to be one of those people who leaves within a year of joining because I didn't fit? Maybe not. I know I can end up with exactly the same kind of a boss again. So instead of running away from this, I think I am going to face it. Then why am I speaking about all this? Well, if I do see this a year later and see if I actually ran away from this, I know the material I am made out of ;-). I am most likely to have a "smart justification" that my future recruiter will buy for my running away...something a year in business school certainly does to people. Be eternally optimistic atleast about one's own career choices even if they are extremely-reactive ;-).