The Rules For Being A Great Boss
She is an entrepreneur, investor, the founder of Business Chicks (a half-million strong community of business women across the globe) and a mother of six. Clearly, Emma Isaacs knows a few things about hustling. In her book, The New Hustle, Emma celebrates the hustle that is “about making soulful choices at every turn, and always gently asking the questions that make the difference”. The book outlines 77 rules that relate to all aspects of working life, including these top tips for bosses.
Rule #57 | Be one step ahead
Want to know the secret to keeping good talent on your team? Be one step ahead always. Anticipate their needs. Look out for when they’re showing signs of boredom or apathy and try to offer their next stretch project. If they’re entering a new life phase (maybe becoming a parent, let’s say) anticipate what they might be thinking and feeling and come up with solutions before they’ve even asked for them. If you get a hunch that they might be starting to look for a role elsewhere, send them a note saying how much they’re valued, or offer a small pay incentive. Do whatever it takes and always be one step ahead.
It pays to look ahead, too, no matter where you are in the organisation. Is your boss thinking of moving on? Is there (another!) restructure on the cards? A change in direction that will affect your area? Might the company be in some financial trouble? Perhaps the Christmas presents were a little smaller than the year before? By keeping your finger on the pulse, you’ll always be one step ahead.
Rule #58 | Let them off
You’ve heard the saying “Get the right people on the bus”, which was made famous by Jim Collins back in 2001 in his book Good to Great. Getting the right people on the bus means making sure you have awesome people riding along with you as you build your company into the force it can be. Metaphorically, these people need to be the right ones and they need to be sitting in the right seats before the bus can begin its journey.
Sounds easy, but of course it’s more difficult in practice. Hiring great talent takes time and effort, and requires you to have an X factor that puts your brand ahead of your competition.
I’ve made so many mistakes in my business when it comes to people, and most of these mistakes come down to keeping the wrong people on the bus for far too long. I’ve wanted to do the ‘right thing’ and be the ‘nice person’ and keep my fingers and toes crossed that they come good or the situation would somehow work itself out. I’ve been around the block enough now to know that neither situation ever really eventuates. If you know someone isn’t right, you need to ring that bell on the bus signalling for it to stop, and then you need to gently escort them off it.
When entrepreneur and author Marie Forleo spoke for Business Chicks she said, “It’s not always about who you hire. It’s about who you fail to fire. Those people will ruin your business.”
Amen, sister.
““Get known as the positive, upbeat colleague who wants to help make work better for everyone and you’ll be well on your way to getting that title you deserve.””
Rule #59 | Remove the peas
As a kid, I hated peas. I’d stash them in a glass of milk or down my socks when no one was looking. I’d put them on my sister’s plate when Mum and Dad weren’t watching, and find them in my pockets days after, too. One time at school we had to give a speech and were allowed to choose any topic in the world. The other kids chose subjects like the Vietnam War and Newton’s laws of motion. I chose to talk about how much I hated peas.
Stay with me here. There’s a reason I’m talking about peas.
If you’re a leader, your job is to remove the peas. It’s to get rid of the friction or the pain points or the frustrations that your team members experience at work each day.
Does their equipment work well? Are they comfortable? Do the rules of the company make their life (at work) harder or easier? What can you do to support them? All of these questions are important ones for leaders to consider. If you can build a reputation for serving your people and trying to remove the roadblocks that make parts of their work frustrating, you’ll be well on the way to gaining their trust and earning your credibility.
I was in my office recently and walked by the desk of one of the team. This team member is responsible for doing tasks that take up a bit of space: receiving all the mail and packages that come in for the team each day plus managing all the outgoing mail too, and she always seems to be sorting receipts and paperwork as well. There were piles of stuff everywhere, and while it looked reasonably organised, you couldn’t see the top of her desk under all those piles. If the lack of available space was giving me a small amount of anxiety from just walking past it, then I could imagine she might be finding this quite frustrating. I asked her, ‘Is this setup working for you?’ and she said, ‘No! No matter how I try and organise myself, I never seem to have enough room.’ I went back to my computer, did a quick search online and ordered a small bookshelf that she could place beside her desk to organise all that paperwork. She was super grateful that I’d taken the time to find a solution and even asked her about it in the first place, saying, “I was just so in it that I couldn’t see that I needed a little more space, and anyway didn’t know that this was available to me, so thought I just had to suffer through with the one desk.” If you’re a leader, learn to tune in to what makes work frustrating for your people, and do what you can to remove those frustrations, no matter how big or small they are.
Don’t think of yourself as a leader quite yet? Think again. Even if you don’t have the leader title, you can still play a huge part in making work fun for you and your teammates. Instead of waiting for your manager to remove frustrations for you and your colleagues, also be on the lookout for problems you can solve for others. Get known as the positive, upbeat colleague who wants to help make work better for everyone and you’ll be well on your way to getting that title you deserve.
Extract from The New Hustle by Emma Isaacs (Macmillan Australia, $34.99)