Okay, okay, bear with me on this one. I was listening to a friend talk about not railing against your boss, your employer, your job or your organization. The message really resonated with me and I realized how often we hear this in everyday conversations. Are there bad bosses? Yes, they made a movie about that. Are there bad jobs? Again, yes. Is the boss always wrong? Maybe not.
The benefit of working with so many individuals across various workplaces is themes begin to appear. This theme or sentiment seems pretty ingrained with a lot of us. A while ago while working with a leader, they described that the real conflict was with their boss. The lack of trust, and second guessing that their boss did made the situation impossible for this leader to function.
The more we talked, the more I asked questions about what was actually happening in this leader’s workplace. Towards the end of our time together I had one final question.
“Now that we talked about what is really happening in your operation, was your boss right or wrong?” I asked.
There was a long pause.
And another.
“Right, [expletive], it.”
The revelation was clear. The boss was trying their best to coach this leader about an identified problem in their operation. The boss was right. The leader could not see the problem, but focused on the issue with the boss instead. The whole time this leader was fighting against the boss, valuable time had been lost and the situation was getting worse.
My friend’s message and this meeting made me think about my own life. How often do I take something personally or let my ego get in the way of becoming a better leader, manager, husband, father or employee?
I am taking my friend’s advice to identify these situations and try to be a little more humble. Whenever I find myself disagreeing or saying that someone is “wrong” I take a step back. Maybe the boss (or whoever is trying to tell me something) is right.
Carl Weber Consulting 