“A good boss today looks different than 50 years ago,” Christine Mitterbauer, a licensed and ICF-approved career coach and serial entrepreneur based in the UK, told Bored Panda. “Today, some of the skills that are most highly valued in bosses are communication skills, coaching and mentoring skills and relationship-building skills,” she explained.

According to Mitterbauer, a great boss puts the team and the goals of the company before themselves. “Whereas earlier, a good boss would tell their employees what to do, today, they should empower their employees to do the job themselves. A good boss also realizes she/he is often not the smartest person in the room, and knows how to bring out the very best in her/his employees.”

The career coach explained that some people naturally have the skills mentioned above, and they will therefore be naturally good leaders without much specific leadership training. “But most people would benefit from training, ideally including on-the-job training,” she added.

“Communication, coaching and relationship-building skills are all skills that can be taught if you have the right mindset and take the lessons and insights onboard. Ideally, a great leader also has empathy and the ability to put their minds into that of others, and these are skills that are harder to teach,” Mitterbauer told us.

Employees want to feel listened to and respected, so a good boss will honor this and show, over time, that they value the input and work from the employee, Mitterbauer said. She argues that “it feels genuine, this process takes time, as there have to be several instances of feeling listened to and respected.”

“Giving regular constructive feedback to the employee is important, as is spending time training and simply listening to the employee on a regular basis,” the career coach concluded.