BOSSES: MYTHS AND REALITIES

This week I’ve asked my Twitter followers to help me write this post about bosses. By the way, thank you to all of you who participated! What you’ll find below are some reflections about everything we discussed online together. Myths and realities about this much-talked-about character: THE BOSS.

1) Most of the time your boss sees everything you see (right and wrong things), but since their understanding of the issues tends to be broader their actions are different from yours. Here’s an analogy to make it clearer. When we’re teenagers we have ideas with which we think we can move mountains. When we grow up we realize those ideas were silly. Why? Because when we grow up we are able to perceive the consequence of our actions in the mid and long term more broadly, something we couldn’t do as teenagers. It’s the same thing with your boss. Believe me!

2) Being a boss generally includes working harder and being responsible for EVERYTHING that goes right or wrong. That’s why they mobilize people toward reaching a goal. And mobilizing is NOT easy at all. If you become a boss and don’t know how to mobilize people; you can give orders but if the result doesn’t come you’ll probably think, “Why have I become a boss?”

3) Being a boss means making more money. But it’s also about doing more (not necessarily more hours, but doing more for sure). Being a boss is making more money but it’s also about paying a higher price. If you’re not sure what I mean, check this post.

4) If you have children, maybe you recognize the feeling that children don’t come with instruction manual and that sometimes you don’t know how to make the right decision. Being a boss is similar. People who report to you don’t come with instruction manuals and—contrary to your children—generally have no family ties to you—which not always makes things easier.

5) If you want to open your own business so that you get rid of the boss, beware. At the end of each month you’ll have a payroll to take care of, taxes, suppliers to negotiate, clients to please, and none of them have any employee relationship with you. They resemble more like bosses. You can expect them to hold you accountable.

What matters is that ALL OF US HAVE BOSSES. The figure of the boss may take the form of your clients or even the government to which business people owe taxes and several types of responses.

The absence of someone to respond to doesn’t exist. And the bigger your “power” as a boss, the more complex your decisions and the more people you owe answers to regarding your attitudes.

One of the most powerful men in the world is US president Barack Obama. Do you really believe he can do anything he wants without consulting anyone?

Maybe he’s the guy with the largest number of “bosses,” to whom he needs to render accounts of EVERYTHING he does and says.

So, do you still want to be a boss?

GOOD LUCK!