Google has been studying its own management team, and together with customer satisfaction surveys, has come up with the 10 top attributes of a good boss.  How do these compare to your notion of what makes a good manager?

1. A good coach: one who helps employees through problems and uses them as valuable learning points.
2. Empowers the team, rather than micromanaging, by letting you use your skills instead of trying to do everything for you, or watch over your every move.
3. Creates an inclusive team environment, where people are encouraged to introduce new ideas, and success and well-being are encouraged.
4. Productive and results focussed: a good boss helps out when necessary, and ensures the team know what their group and individual goals are.
5. A good communicator – this is both sharing information to the team, and good at listening too.
6. Supports career development, including discussing performance.  This is best achieved using feedback to help the employee work towards their goals.
7. Has a clear strategy for the team:  so the individuals in the team know what is expected of them, and what you need to do to get there.
8. Has technical skills needed to advise the team.  Your boss should at least have an understanding of the tasks they are asking the team to undertake. 
9. Collaborates across the organisation, by having good relationships with other members of the organisation outside of the immediate team.
10. Is a strong decision maker, able to take informed decisions rather than constantly prevaricating or avoiding decisions.

As an employee, how does your boss score against these factors?  And if you are a boss, can you honestly claim all 10?  And what would your employees rate you as?

We are also interested in what other attributes you think makes a good boss – tell us over on our Facebook page here. 

In the week that saw a lottery win of £170 million, a survey also revealed that for a large part of the population, buying a lottery ticket is their only form of pension planning.  Auto-enrolment has to a large extent changed things as workers now save through company schemes, but we’ve uncovered a few statistics which make for potentially worrying reading if you’re hoping for a happy retirement.

The average amount sitting in pension pots is £61,897.  This will generate a yearly income of about £2,500.  Add this to a full state pension and it doesn’t match the minimum wage. 

One in 8 of all pension pots are over £250,000, which is the minimum most people are going to need.  On average, we are not saving enough to create this size of pot anyway.  Last year, the average amount paid into a pension was £2,700.  Over a 30 year working lifetime, this will create £81,000, nowhere near the amount required. 

Accessing your pension pot is relatively easy, and 25% can be taken out as a tax-free lump sum, which is obviously very attractive.  But is this the best option?  The rules are complex, and taking out a lump now may not always be the best option for you in the longer term.  48% of pension plans in 2018 were accessed without any financial advice.  It is a bit of a minefield, and there are many sources of help and advice – perhaps the best starting point is the Pensions Advisory Service, a free and impartial government service. 

After a lifetime of work, making sure you are able to afford a decent retirement is an important consideration – but one which we don’t tend to think about until it may be too late.   On average, a male will live another 18.6 years after hitting 65, and a female another 20.9 years.  Pension planning really should be about more than buying a lottery ticket.