Product Showcases

Don't Be So Bossy

"No man goes before his time - unless the boss leaves early."
  --- Groucho Marx

There finally seems to be a shift in the way the boss-employee relationship is being handled today. In the days of old, the boss said jump and the employee was expected to ask how high. That concept, in a way, still needs to be alive today because someone needs to call the shots and steer the boat. The new shift is in how the relationship is developing more into a partnership with the person in charge, the boss, leading the way with employees or team members alongside assisting in the attainment of goals for everyone.

The objective of the new relationship is to put more focus on completing projects, improving customer service, providing quality products and services, and basically growing the business. When the focus is clear from the beginning, the employee knows that the boss is not the boss of old, but the leader facilitating the process of progress.

"If employees need to stay late in order to curry favor with the boss, what motivation do they have to get work done during normal business hours? After all, they can put in the requisite 'face time' whether they are surfing the Internet or analyzing customer data."
  --- Robert Pozen

The new relationship keeps team members focused on the business goals and mission and not on pleasing the boss. The boss rewards performance, achievements, milestones reached, creativeness, and improvisations, and not time in the chair or on the shop floor. It is a new paradigm that employees will embrace if the boss does his or her part.

"The speed of the boss is the speed of the team."
  --- Lee Iacocca

As a leader, the boss sets the tone for the business, for the month, and for the day. He still gives direction (in the old days it was called orders), but he also leads by example showing team members the importance of goal setting, being creative, and providing great customer service.

"In the past a leader was a boss. Today's leaders must be partners with their people... they no longer can lead solely based on positional power."
  --- Ken Blanchard

It would be wrong to think that the boss is just one of the team members trying to get things done. But the boss/leader should not consider themselves as a higher authority able to hand down sentences of punishment to those that don't follow their rules. The leader should be able to communicate to team members which direction the business is headed and to direct what projects need to be accomplished. If the right people were hired, that is all that is needed. The team members should be empowered to achieve the final outcome in their own way.

"There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else."
  --- Sam Walton

A boss will always be needed. In most cases, he or she is the person that started the business and knows the ins and outs of it. A boss is needed, but the boss doesn't have to be bossy. A good boss hires the right people, sets the tone of the business, and then gets out of the way.

"People ask the difference between a leader and a boss. The leader leads, and the boss drives."
  --- Theodore Roosevelt