It’s been a while, a really long while, between posts. In fact, I didn’t realize that it was over a year and a half until recently. When I asked myself why I haven’t been writing, I didn’t come up with a good answer beyond a lack of time and, well, life got busy again. I will most certainly not look back on 2020 and 2021 and wish to go through lockdown and social distancing ever again, but I did enjoy that life slowed down, just a bit, back then.
I’m not sure I would have started writing again if it wasn’t for a conversation I had with a long time colleague of mine. We were having a one on one meeting, I was seeking advice on a number of things related to a recent promotion and in the course of the conversation, my blog came up. They commented that they wished I was still writing and my initial reaction was one of shock. I didn’t think that this person was even aware that I had a blog. And now they are the inspiration for me to get back at it and write again and try to have less time pass between posts. Thank you, you know who you are.
I mention the recent promotion as it was the catalyst for this post, in a roundabout way. When I was promoted I heard a few people say I was the new boss, their new boss, or some variation. I also heard people call me their grand or great grand boss, indicating the level of distance in an org chart. I found myself frequently asking people not to call me the boss and explaining why.
What’s wrong with the word boss? Close your eyes and think about what you see when you hear the word boss. For me it’s someone that looks like one of these two people:
and sometimes I think of the time my dog thought she was the boss:
Did you see something similar to the first two pictures? It would be weird if you thought of my dog as a boss, unless you’ve seen this picture before. These are outdated and old school views of a leader. This is a person who tells you what to do, they give directions, they don’t collaborate, they don’t seek to gain consensus, they are a dictator, and they certainly don’t ask questions. I think you can sum it up with when a boss says “jump” they expect to hear “how high”.
This image that I see is the complete opposite of how I lead and what people expect of modern leaders. I think Simon Sinek says it best, “Leadership is not about being in charge. Leadership is about looking after those in our charge.” Leadership today is about building trust, creating an environment where people can have honest debate, collaboration, ask questions, and challenge their leaders. The last part might be the most anti-boss of all of the aspects but the most critical.
Why is it critical to have an environment for the team to challenge their leaders? It isn’t productive to have a team of “yes” people. A good leader wants people who will question them and challenge their ideas. And in the end, these questions and challenges should lead to the best outcome and solutions for the problems, opportunities, and challenges that a team faces. Personally, I set this expectation with teams that I lead, make it clear that they should challenge me and hold me accountable, because I know that I don’t have all the answers.
In the end, most people want to be a part of the decision and not told what to do. They want to have the opportunity to discuss and debate, to ask questions, to add to the idea. Even if they agree with what the “boss” says, they will buy-in and execute better if they were part of the decision and not just handed a directive.
A friend of mine, we’ll call them Jamie, recently brought up a challenge that they were facing at work. They have two teams they are leading and these teams are located in different parts of the world, bringing in different cultures and expectations. This organization is a startup and moving from doing what’s needed to establishing processes and procedures for efficiency. The issue at hand was that the two teams were doing quality checks in different ways. One team, let’s call them the purple team, has dedicated people who do the quality checks while the other team, we’ll call them the blue team, has the same people that produce the product rotate and do quality checks intermittently.
My friend wanted to have the blue team adopt the process of the purple team. Jamie had some good reasons, starting with wanting to have a global standard. Another major concern was that the blue team may not be as stringent on quality since they are evaluating their peers and that may come with bias and leniency. When Jamie went to implement the purple team’s process for the blue team, it was met with great resistance. Some of the blue team members went as far as calling my friend a dictator.
The challenge Jamie was having is that the blue team hadn’t bought into this idea, despite Jamie having spent over a year trying to sell them on the idea. However, my friend was acting like a “boss” and trying to force them to adopt the purple team’s process. I suggested that Jamie bring the teams together and let them discuss the two processes with some guiding principles for the conversation and clarity that the outcome must be a singular model to help them scale better globally. This way will give both teams a chance to debate and a much better chance that both the blue and purple teams will buy into the go forward plan having been part of the decision and not just told what to do by a “boss.”
I’m often asked what I like being called besides Scott or Lerner. In place of “boss” I usually tell people I’m good with jefe or chief. I’m open to new leadership nicknames too, drop some in the comments, but please don’t call me the boss.
Feature Image, Angry Boss, by storyset on Freepik
You know I would call you Slerner. But, I like jefe.
You can always call me slerner Jaff!