4 Reasons Why Being a Boss is Not an Olympic Event
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Summer games or winter games, it doesn't matter. When it's time for the Olympics, it's also time for a spate of articles about how much we can learn from the incredible athletes who compete in the games.
But if you're a boss beware. There are four reasons why being a boss is not an Olympic event.
Winning isn't everything, or even the only thing. You have to accomplish the mission. But you also have to care for your people. That means keeping them safe and helping them grow.
You don't get to practice more than you play. In fact, with the exception of the occasional class on a specific topic, you don't get to practice at all. Being a boss is a performance art where learning and doing intertwine.
You don't belong to just one team. In business, you belong to several teams at once. And, just to make it more fun, you may compete with another team on one activity at the same time you're also cooperating with them.
There's no closing ceremony. Every triumph is the gateway to a new challenge. Every time you come up short you must learn from it. Every time your team changes, you have to adjust.
Boss's Bottom Line
Being a boss may not be an Olympic event. You may never a get a gold medal or even a gold watch. But if it's right for you, being a boss is one of the most rewarding pursuits in the world.
Wally's Working Supervisor's Support Kit is a collection of information and tools to help working supervisors do a better job. It's based on what Wally's learned in over twenty years of supervisory skills training. Click here to check it out.
Thanks for the thoughts, Wally. I am thinking about your second point. Leaders don't get to practice very often, but are there ways they can reap the benefits of practice anyway? I am biased, so the first way that comes to my mind is feedback. Increasing self-awareness has to be at the top of the list. Next, I would think of after action reviews. Reflecting on what has worked well as well as the stumbling blocks encountered along the way seems like a possible way to practice while doing. Any other thoughts?
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You're right Joaquin. Leadership is an apprentice trade, meaning that you have to learn most of it on the job. You've got two power tools to help you. You mentioned feedback. The other is developmental assignments. You might like my post on " Leadership Development: Crafting Your Personal Development Plan."
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Wally
Nice post:
Another difference. For bosses success can mean very different things to different people.And in both worlds, it's good advice to be careful around the thin ice.
All the best,
Michael
www.workengagement.com
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Great point, Michael. Thanks.
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Wally,
I use the metaphor of a Champion in my organizational consulting which resonates very well with the business owners and CEOs I work with. The key distinction I stress is that we shouldn't be too focused on "winning" and beating the competition as you must to achieve the medals in the Olympics, but any organization can be a Champion if they define it on their own terms to continually improve and be the best they can be.
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That's a great insight, Skip. One of the important differences between business and sports is that in business you get to define what a "win" is for your team. Then, as you state you can be a Champion regardless of how the "market" defines you. Andy Taylor, of Enterprise Rent-a-Car, was asked how he felt when Enterprise became the largest auto rental company. He replied that being the largest was never the goal. The goal was to deliver great service, which Enterprise measures with the ESQi system. That's what determines things like bonuses and promotions.
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Love the points! Being a boss is long term Olympics not 15 minutes of fame.
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Thanks for making that point, Teresa. I spent some time this week with a retired executive who had just had a family member die. Many of the people who came to the visitation had worked for him, some over twenty years ago. They were there because "he was the best boss I ever had."
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I am forwarding this to my credit union client whose campaign is aimed at "local working families," telling them to "keep up the good work." I will forward your blog to my client in case they want to quote it when they give awards to the working families' employers, who are rarely given recognition or gold metals. Thanks.
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Wow. I've always loved the ways that good credit unions and community banks serve their members and communities. I'm proud to be part of anything that helps them do that.
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Winning and being efficient at reaching your goals are not necessarily similar things. Winning simply is that, while being efficient is to do generally the same thing - when it is worth pursuing - in the most cost-effective way; efficiency has to be the choice for leaders, bosses and managers. If you are in for the long haul, you should be efficient; not simply a winner.
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You're right, Pablo. Being efficient and winning are not the same things. And efficiency is important. But you have to be efficient about the right things and define efficiency in the right way. That's effectiveness. You have to have both to "win" in any significant way.
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Yes, the three are different categories: Victory, efficiency and goals. You can be efficient at doing things that lately are discovered to be wrong - i.e. the Inquisition was efficient as a policing entity, for the wrong reasons. As for a definition of efficiency, in my field of work is considered to be essentially to reach goals with an optimal expenditure of resources.
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Good clarification, Pablo. Thanks for returning and sharing it.
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Hi Wally,
This is a very interesting and true concept. I would think that being a boss would be more similar to being a coach. The Olympic athlete would then be the employee, performing in a manner that reflects their guidance. The boss should be someone who teaches and supports in order to enable or encourage the success of their people. While watching the Olympics, perhaps a better parallel would be between the "boss" and the "coach".
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I think that's a good insight Mackenzie. Let's extend it a bit, though. In most situations a boss is a player-coach, responsible for his/her own performance and also for the performance and development of others. Thanks for adding to the conversation.
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If everyday life was the Olympics, we would all be competing so hard that it would be almost impossible for anyone to succeed. In the real world, a person who is the best at something isn’t necessarily the best person for the job. Take Bill Gates for instance; his lack of education wouldn’t even qualify him to become a middle manager of modern Microsoft Corporation. But obviously, he is more than qualified for his present occupation. We should have goals to achieve, but I think that if we only focus on getting a better end product, we might forget everyone else along the way and that could be a big mistake in the long run.
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I love that example Nathaniel. Interesting that Gates would probably not make it through a resume screen based on his education. Thanks.
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Great food for thought as always, Wally! I really enjoyed this post and have featured it in my weekly Rainmaker 'Fab Five' blog picks of the week to share your thoughts with my readers.
Be well!
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Thanks, Chris. It's always an honor to be one of your carefully-chosen selections.
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I like the end with “the boss’s bottom line." I to agree being a boss can be incredibly rewarding and I get much stratification from leading others. I wish our attitude was more wide spread.
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Thanks for the kind words, Mike. I think it's vital that we choose our bosses from a pool of people who have a shot at doing the job well and who will get satisfaction from it.
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Great post, Wally.
I have to say, though: when I was a young-ish manager of many, there were times when: (a) I wished I had a helmet to wear, (b) I could have benefited by knowing more how to navigate slippery slopes, and (c) sometimes "the uniform" reminded me that there was a larger team to which I belonged that mattered too.
Still, I get your points, and tongue-in-cheek comments aside, totally agree.
Cheers!
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Thanks, Nancy, both for stopping by and those wonderful tongue-in-cheek comments.
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Congrats on winning "best director" at the HR Carnival for this piece. Well deserved!1
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Thanks for those kind words, Mark. I got a real kick out of that. I hope I'm a Clint Eastwood kind of director – one who lets the actors act.
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