Corcoran’s Piece of Advice for People in Their 20s: Choose The Best Boss Over Anything

By Moon Harper

May 21, 2024 05:28 AM EDT

As graduation season unfolds, Barbara Corcoran, a successful real estate entrepreneur and investor, advises her TikTok viewers to prioritize selecting the best boss when assessing job opportunities and potential roles.

Select The Best Boss When Looking For A Job

While selecting a job based solely on salary or a company's prestigious reputation can be tempting, such factors become irrelevant if you and your boss do not get along. Corcoran highlighted that having a supportive boss will have more to do with your workplace happiness than what you do in a day.

Corcoran gained this insight from her personal experience, where she encountered multiple unsupportive bosses who failed to provide recognition, lacked integrity, and undermined her efforts during her twenties, as she shared with Yahoo Finance in 2019. Out of the 21 jobs she had before turning 22, she learned the most from the bad bosses, believing hardships and negative experiences teach us more than positive ones.

Corcoran highlights a key business strategy that none of her previous bad bosses utilized: giving recognition for a job well done. She emphasizes that recognizing achievements is more important than monetary compensation, a practice that many large businesses fail to prioritize or utilize effectively in today's market.

In a 2019 episode of her podcast, "Business Unusual," Corcoran remarked that such behavior can create a dreadful workplace environment and contribute to burnout. She stated that she has never encountered anyone who enjoyed their job while working for a bad boss, nor have they advanced professionally, regardless of their job satisfaction. Corcoran emphasized that while finding enjoyable work is relatively simple, finding the right boss is more challenging. She further noted that enduring a lousy boss for an extended period can damage one's self-esteem, making them feel less valued and respected. She could have a detrimental impact on an individual.

How to Spot A Good Boss?

CEOs and workplace culture experts identify three common traits among the best bosses:

Empathy
Adaptability
Initiative

Caitlin Duffy, director of research at consulting firm Gartner, emphasizes that having bosses who empathize with their employees and demonstrate genuine kindness and care is crucial for job satisfaction.

This sentiment is particularly relevant in today's post-pandemic workforce, where Duffy noted in a 2022 interview with CNBC Make It that employees now anticipate leaders in the workplace to attend to their increasingly complex and sensitive personal needs, which have evolved over the past few years.

Meanwhile, Executive Coach Rohan Verma emphasized that adaptability and initiative are closely intertwined. In an interview with Make It in February, Verma explained that when confronted with a challenge in the workplace, a good boss evaluates the situation and makes decisions that ultimately benefit the company and its employees.

According to Corcoran, bosses possessing these qualities can enhance the satisfaction and value of even the most demanding job. She emphasized that the individual you work for is pivotal in determining whether you are happy or dissatisfied with your job.