My boss is the best. That's a phrase most of us have said or heard at some point, but what does it mean? What sets the "best" boss apart from the "average" boss? There are many descriptions about the qualities of managers and leaders and how the two differ, but little has been said about what makes a manager great or best, and how he is able to win over his employees and at the same time get the work done. How do great managers actually work?

The first and the foremost thing is that they discover what special quality each person working under them has and then capitalise on this uniqueness. This can be explained with the analogy of playing checkers and chess. Average managers play checkers, while great managers play chess. How are these two games different? In checkers, all the pieces are uniform and move in the same way; they are interchangeable. Only one needs to plan and co-ordinate their movements. In chess, each type of piece moves differently. And to win one has to think carefully about how one moves the pieces. Great managers recognise and value the uniqueness and even the eccentricities of their employees, and they learn how best to utilise them.