How do you deal with a hard-to-please boss?

As a graphic artist it is hard for me to please the boss in terms of design to the extent that I've created so many many design idea but still he can't still choose. It is normal for us designers to please the boss or even clients. In order for me to deal with that kind of problem then I can't do nothing but to design as many as I can and the ideas are different. I could that it is not about being a boss that is hard to please but it depends on their demands in some other aspect. They can be please in other things but not on what they want. I haven't encountered anyone that is really hard to please in general although I don't know if how to deal with if I am also with that situation.

Bosses really do not baby their employees. Most bosses are very strict that they do not want any errors in the outputs of their employees. For me, the best thing to do is to show to my boss that I am sincere in all the things that I do. Showing to the my boss that I can do well. Prove to the boss that I can go as far as he wanted. We can also talk with our bosses to have their feedback in our performance. It is better for us to know what our boss really means before we listen to our perceptions. Sometimes, employees also just rely on what they feel that when the boss got angry at them, they feel that their boss is not pleased without knowing that the boss is just expressing his/her feeling. May be the boss appreciated also the effort of the employees. It's just it depends on the attitude of the employee to respond to the incident.

I am very lucky in that I am basically self employed. Hubby and I are both on disability, but we suppliment our income with a bit of money we earn from book sales (we each have books published), and with the work that we do on line. I am glad it's this way, because I would not be able to handle a difficult boss.

I fussed about this for years with my previous boss. He was a perfectionist and that was very hard for me. He found fault where I thought I did everything right.....and had a clean conscience about handing in my work He is retiring now and boy am I happy about this though he is not my boss any more for quite some time now. My current boss has studied law so he solves our problems from a different angle or point of view. We dont have the same opinions sometimes, but I dont fret about this at all. I do my best and thats good enough for me. I dont have a bad conscience any more when he wants things changed etc, cause my view of my work has changed quite a bit over the years.

Thanks a ton for sharing this discussion. Well yes u are absolutely right, most of us have this feeling that our boss might pounce on us anytime and that is the reason why many of us have this insecurity in us. to be very honest we should learn the art of pleasing our boss by the dint of our work and honesty towards the organization so that they never intimidate us. What say?