According to Forbes, there are 7 things that make great bosses unforgettable: passionate, caring, knowledgeable (about their staff,) authentic, composed, human, and humble. These characteristics are thoroughly shown by the four K-drama bosses below. Hence, they were on the list. Their unique portrayal of those attributes could help us recognize a good boss. Starting with…
Kim Sun – Goblin
Do you have a boss that allows you to chill when they’re gone? Well, Eun-tak (Kim Go-eun) has. Her boss is none other than the Sassy Pretty Business Woman Kim Sun (Yoo In-na), who looks fierce on the outside but has a golden heart inside. The funny thing was when Eun-tak refused her boss’s offer to chill, Kim Sun still pushed Eun-tak to relax. Then here comes the caring part, Kim Sun initiated Eun-tak to temporarily leave work to study for her upcoming exam. The latter doesn’t have to ask permission! Her boss offered to leave first! What’s more, is that Kim Sun never once talked down to Eun-tak (humble) whenever the Goblin’s bride is asking questions – even though most of the questions are petty and sometimes none of Eun-tak’s business.
Ms. Yang – Where Stars Land
Note: This K-drama boss has four powerful moves that are truly helpful for employees who lack confidence and these are:
Encourage questions
If you are an unassertive new or old employee, will this line, “You need to tell us what you don’t know if you want to learn,” be music to your ears if your boss said the quoted line? I don’t know about you, but it will be for me. Yeo-reum’s (Chae Soo-bin) expression seemed vague when she heard the quoted line from Ms. Yang (Kim Ji-soo). Either she doesn’t care or she was too shocked to hear her boss’s invitation to ask. Why shocked? Well, that’s because, in the “working world,” it’s unusual for superiors to invite questions from their staff (assuming that Yeo-reum knows that.) So, when you have a boss who is open to questions, don’t let them go; they are one of a kind.
Protects her staff
Inviting questions are not the only generous move that Ms. Yang’s staff got from her, she also protects them to the point of debating with her colleagues and boss. And she did the exact line that Forbes said about an unforgettable boss, “If they can’t stop the bus, they’ll jump out in front of it and take the hit themselves.” Ms. Yang did not hesitate to raise her hand and say, “You can pass that onto me. I actually told them to do it. They just followed my orders,” as soon as the other manager scolds Yeo-reum, Soo-yeon (Lee Je-hoon), Young-joo (Lee Soo-kyung) and Dae-ki (Kim Kyung-nam.)
Takes responsibility to her staff’s mistakes
That’s not it, remember Yeo-reum’s issue with the congressman’s daughter? After the problem was resolved, our female lead apologized to Ms. Yang, and the latter replied, “A team manager’s job is to take care of the trouble caused by their subordinates. Our job is to use our experience to deal with the mistakes you guys made.” Wow! Hands down to that line. Embracing mistakes is not that difficult when you have your boss’s back. Actually, that literally happened when Yeo-reum was being threatened by her old high school bully, Ms. Yang gave our female lead four fast track passes when Yeo-reum failed to ask Mr. Seo for the requested pass.
Asks consent
Some of us who rarely experienced being asked by our superiors if it was right to do a particular task probably felt envious when Ms. Yang asked Soo-yeon if it was okay for him to handle water purifiers. Because asking for your consent makes you feel that your feelings are important to your boss, an experience that some superiors do not allow to their staff.
Park Sae-ro-yi – Itaewon Class
“Business is all about people” that’s what Park Sae-ro-yi (Park Seo-joon) believed when running a business. That’s why whenever his staff are having trouble in their work, he would just calmly ask them to improve. Sometimes, when they made a mistake, he would just see the silver lining of their errors. For instance, when Seung-kwon (Ryu Kyung-soo) accidentally suspended DanBam, Sae-ro-yi saw the suspension as an opportunity to make a plan on how they could improve the business. But the cherry on top of Sae-ro-yi’s “I will value people more than money” are these scenes: Sae-ro-yi helped his neighboring business to be discovered and he did not push Hyun-yi to continue with the competition after the latter’s transgender news came out. Despite that setback, Sae-ro-yi did not give up on the contest, as he decided to finish it himself.
If you were offered to get away from business suspension because you know some rich businessman, would you take it? Well, Sae-ro-yi didn’t. Why? Because he hates dishonesty and bullying. That’s why he got angry with his manager when Yi-seo (Kim Da-mi) kept telling Toni (Chris Lyon) that he’s not Korean.
Gu-won – King the Land
The “fake smile hater” of King Hotel, Gu-won (Lee Jun-ho) also believed in people first before money and he was brave enough to fight for it from his sister. The unique moves he brought as a boss are: prohibiting his staff from doing tasks that are out of their job description such as participating in the Super Farmer Week and Calling VIP guests on the phone; and he made the long-term employees the star of the show during the 100th anniversary of King the land. Throughout the series, he consistently convinced his step-sister to take care of their employees, so that the latter would take care of King Group. Spoiler alert: He successfully convinced his sister.
We wish we had bosses like them, it would make work ten times better! Which boss would you want to work for? Let us know on our Instagram and Twitter!
You can watch Goblin, Where Stars Land, Itaewon Class, and King the Land on Netflix.
