Being your own boss is fun! You can determine your own hours, write your own salary, interact with customers in your own way, and make a name for yourself. You won’t step on anyone’s toes (except your own), you’ll no longer receive offhand criticism from a ‘higher up’, however this attitude doesn’t necessarily translate to becoming the boss of other people.
If you’ve done a great job of being your own boss so far, there’s a good chance your company has really taken off. However, when a company suddenly finds itself in an ocean of success, it needs more than one pair of hands to steer the ship!
So it’s time to start hiring. How do you feel about that? A bit intimidated? Like you’ll have no idea how to be the boss and ultimately fail at your job? Don’t worry, that’s just the panic talking! For now let’s sit down and go over the points of what makes someone a good leader, even if they don’t quite feel like a natural one. When you’ve got some expert tips in your back pocket, you’ll bring a sense of confidence to your new position that’ll really carry you through.
1. Have Expectations for Everyone, Including Yourself
Job expectations can’t be decided on the spot, nor can they be undefined. They need to be outlined well in a contract and in the initial job posting you put online. If you try to sneak in a responsibility that wasn’t outlined by the interview at least, you’re not going to be a very good boss!
You also need to set clear expectations for yourself as well. This is especially useful if you’re not sure how to ‘act’ the boss yet, but in doing so you’ll give yourself a professional guideline to adhere to. So think about what you need to do to keep your business running, and how any employees would fit into that.
For example, you can delegate now, but you also need to communicate. This means you can expect an employee to shoulder the working load you’re under, but you also expect yourself to give warning when handing a task over. And why would this be important? Because you expect yourself, as the boss, to keep things fair!
2. Don’t Let Good Deeds Go Unrewarded
The working world can be a cutthroat place. It can be high pressure and fast moving, and making a success out of something is very difficult as a result. Your only reward is often the simple knowledge that you achieved something, with other people failing to recognize where you’ve come from and what you’ve done.
Don’t let the same be true within your own workplace. If an employee does a good deed, maybe by finally clearing that data backlog or securing a particular tricky client, reward them in full. Make sure they know just how much you appreciate what they’ve done for you, and that the whole team is able to congratulate them without a hint of fuss or envy.
After all, a little bit of employee recognition goes a long way. And if you react the same way to every employee’s job well done, no one is going to feel left out. There’s a chance for the whole team to shine, once you’ve put one together, and that can be the most motivating thing in the modern workplace. Equal opportunity employers always pull through where many others fail.
3. Show Respect for Everyone’s Time
Respecting someone’s time is key in this modern, hyper connected world. When employees are used to receiving messages and emails outside of working hours, and there’s an expectation to respond to them straight away, you can take advantage of your position as their boss. You’re not respecting their time, you’re not respecting the working schedule you set yourself, and it’s going to be hard to create a warm, positive atmosphere as a result.
Of course, there are going to be emergencies from time to time. Maybe there’s been a data breach, or maybe some extreme weather has forced the roof in – anything can happen! Talking to your employees outside of work hours would be fine in these scenarios.
But trying to maintain that working connection when they’re offline for the day or taking PTO can be incredibly damaging. Be aware of this as someone who’s about to become a boss for the first time – you can very easily set a bad impression otherwise.
4. Never Make an Employee Guess
If your employees don’t know where they stand with you, they’re not going to do their jobs very well. It’s as simple as that! If they don’t know what you’re thinking or feeling, and they have little to no direction, there’s only so much initiative a person can take when something isn’t fully explained to them!
So don’t let the early stages of settling in a new employee be a guessing game. Be direct, be clear, and be honest. Let them know what you want and/or expect, do daily briefings and conduct weekly meetings, and never be afraid to send a follow up email. Sure, they need a bit of space to get on with their work, but as the one in charge you should take opportunities to offer both direction and support. The importance of touching bases should never be understated.
And leading by example is one of the best strategies for improving team communication in the long term. If you’re ‘chatty’, if you like to know what people got up to over the weekend and then how a project is getting on, they’re going to feel able to talk in these ways too. Ultimately, you’ll give them a sense of freedom in the social aspect of the workplace. You have no idea how much of a ‘weight off’ that can be!
5. Give as Much as You Take
As a boss, you ask a lot. But that’s not really a bad thing; it’s what your employees applied for! If you outline your expectations as clearly as the point above, they’re going to know exactly what they’re getting into: some very long hours, as well as a lot of demanding work and crunching deadlines.
But if this still doesn’t sit quite right with you, good. Indeed, it should be something you’re always aware of. Your employees give a lot, do their best, and deliver on the promises they made when they signed their contracts. Even when you’re being paid for the work you do, that’s a lot to deliver.
And as long as they work like this, you need to meet them halfway. How can you do so? By offering them more from the position. Training, promotions, pay rises, incredible career opportunities outside of the office, as well as long term benefits like health insurance and pension contributions. The initiatives you set up need to be serious rewards in themselves.
6. Understand Your Team as a Whole
If you’re hiring more than one person at this stage, you’re going to be working with all kinds of people from all kinds of backgrounds. That means you need an approach that’s more than one size fits all. Your employees are going to be different people with different brains, meaning different ways of working and specific expectations of their own.
Now, this might sound a little tricky to get to grips with, but it’s not actually a bad thing. Think about your own group of friends outside of work. You’re all different people, when it comes down to it. But you all have similar interests or senses of humor that link you all together.
And in the workplace, that similar thing is the job you have to do! Approach from this direction and you’ll find it a lot easier to rub along with new employees and form the bonds that’ll make even more of a success out of your own company.
Becoming the Boss: What to Remember
You’re the one who started this company, and that means you’re the one who knows what it needs and where it wants to go. Keep that in mind as you take on your new role as someone else’s boss. They’re here to do a job you hand picked them for, and your minds should be on excelling at what you’re all assigned to do.
Don’t get bogged down in office politics. Don’t let yourself get jumpy over your employees talking to each other. Indeed, try to join in here and there and lead by example! And above all, make sure you’ve outlined your rules, regulations, and expectations clearly. You can set a boundary without being horrible about it, and doing so will ensure everyone is able to perform their jobs effectively.
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