The Story
For almost a year and a half now I have been my own boss, and while I still have my own business on the side, I am now also working full time for one of my previous clients. Being hired back into the workforce after having enjoyed so much freedom is no easy thing but what I find most intriguing is the different leadership styles of my employer and myself.
And I say leadership is because I am not the right hand man, the handful of staff that we have are mine to direct if I so wish, but then that's not what I do. I find myself to have always been a rather liberal boss. Why push the staff to annoyance? Yes we want productivity but I find that friendship also cultivates loyatly and loyalty does translate into productivity. I want my staff to do things for me because they feel that they want to, not because they HAVE TO.
This is how my boss and I operate very differently.
I like to ask opinions, get feedback and also ask my staff's feelings towards certain things. If they don't think its something that they would enjoy doing... why make them do it if there is another choice. If there isn't another choice, I want my staff to do the work because they feel that I 'asked' them to and not because I 'commanded' them to.
Currently the organisation is rather constrained and overly shaped by its boss and owner. His bottle, shall we say is a shape that no user would really appreciate. There is little I can do about that at the moment, but as his right hand man and as a person who can make decisions to some degree, I think I should not be a bottle, but be a handle to his bottle.
With a good handle, whatever awkward shape the bottle may be becomes just so much more easier to hold.
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