If I had a rand for every time someone has said those words or a variation thereof I would be retired at the age of 26, living comfortable thinking of all those poor souls still dreaming about being the boss, the CEO, the President.
But the reality is that only a select few will reach this ambitious goal, some of us will go a little further than others and the rest will be left behind in their dust. The easiest way to deal with this is by accepting it, make peace with it and then decide to be the best at what we do, who we are and set new goals to achieve.
Being a boss isn’t as glamorous as we all seem to think, yes you get to be the boss, decide who does what, and you get the bigger salary and in some cases even a few other perks. To those on the outside it sure looks like a load of fun, but if you dig deep, peal away some of the layers you will soon see the ‘ugly’ side to being the boss.
You deal with all the office politics, managing everyone to ensure that everyone is happy, using their strengths to the benefit of the company and managing their weaknesses to ensure it doesn’t negatively affect the organization. You need to ensure key performance indicators and personal development objectives are met while ensuring it all fits into those of the company.
The buck stops with you, you have to be the good cop as well as the bad cop to ensure that all runs smoothly in your department. You have to manage people, tasks, budgets in addition to managing higher management and board of trustees all while maintaining internal and external relationships.
Its not easy being the boss, it’s easier to sit there at your desk and criticize what your manager, CEO or Board member are doing, like a cowardly backseat driver. Its easy picking out individual faults or improvements you would make, but a manager, a good manager would look past that, stop criticizing and get the work done in a manner that is professional, on target and to the advantage of everyone.
If we took the time and energy we spent looking, analyzing and criticizing our superiors we would be so much more efficient and maybe, just maybe you will reach the top, that position you have been eyeing…so put your head down, stop looking at others and do what you have been asked to do and you will reap the rewards…
Do not judge someone until you have walked a few miles in their shoes
Good perspective on both sides of the coin.
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