We’re a little bit excited about Halloween in my house. So, in honor of this upcoming “Fright Night” I wanted to dedicate this blog to talking about something we all fear, [perceived] boogie men bosses and the tall tales they inspire their employees to weave.
Once upon a bright and sunny morning, after months of reorganizing my sales team as its new director, an employee returned from maternity leave. She had recently been promoted just before she left and had now returned office to face a new boss- me. The tall tales were running rampant among the staff, I was an ogre sent to, “fire everybody,” “increasing our hours” and “had ridiculous expectations and is going to hold everyone accountable to them.” She was expecting the worst.
Facing the Boogie Man Boss
We had a meeting the day after she returned, we did the niceties then got down to business. You see, I had come to my position in the middle of a downturned market. As you can imagine, sales in the company were hit pretty hard and her salespeople were bleeding money at a rate of tens of thousands per month. To me, that was real ogre that we needed to face.
I told her that there was now a new team of eight full-time employees and the 100 temporary salespeople she was taking over – the worst in the market, would need serious handling. I’m talking on the ground training, getting rid of those who performed subpar and moving from an hourly wage to commission-based salary. That way, high sellers would stand the chance to make the most money. How did she respond? She looked me in the eye, smiled and said, “Consider it done.”
Unmasking Boogie Men Bosses
You’d think I would have said, “and she then immediately went and met with the staff and confirmed I was 10-foot-tall green monster with an axe to grind.” But nope, this leader in the middle owned her fear and used it as motivation. Within 48 hours, she had met with the entire team and begun the arduous task of turning the team around. She established a new organizational structure, strategy, and sales plan. Within three months, our heroine had removed the real lurkers- bad employees, and then the strongest started to thrive. Within twelve short months, she had the top sales team in the country!
Challenging the Myth
This is one of my favorite stories to share, it’s a real-life scenario that none of us would find easy to tackle. But let me tell you why she thrived, and it’s quite simple, she served up to me and coached down to her team. That’s it, she didn’t let her fear or the misconception of what to do next conquer her. She was not swayed by myths and was able to discover that her unmasked boogie man boss wanted the same thing she wanted, a strong team. If faced with a similar challenge, here’s how you can overcome it in the workplace.
1. Believe in your organization
“…turned that power in to belief—belief in the company and the leaders who hired [you]. …focus on why decisions were being made; get it done and making [your] team better to achieve our goals.”
You can excel as a LIM by not focusing on the past, but rather the future. To do this you need to have a reality check and not romanticize the pre-change experience. Ask yourself this question:
- Before the change, was the company really operating at its best?
I guarantee your answer is no.
2. Believe in your LIM
Did you notice that she did not focus on why my decisions were being made? Instead, she focused on getting it done and making her team better to achieve their goals. The takeaway here? Give your LIM the same opportunity you would like your staff to do when implementing new changes.
3. Believe in you
“Your job is to focus on how you serve and lead through the change. Be the teacher of the future, not the student left behind in the class of the past.”
Read that one more time, please. Ok, good. Without a doubt, this is when you put on your coaching hat and become the leader your boss and organization needs. To do this, you will need to own the change and recognize that persons are looking to you to secure the next stage for success.
To close, let me share a quote from my book, Serve Up, Coach Down:
“In business, much like in life, we have marching orders ,and sometimes we get to give input and sometimes we just have to say, “Yes ma’am.” The key is to know the difference and respond accordingly.”
Boogie men bosses are often myths, just like you, many of them are working to make the organization even better.
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