Are you an Unreasonable Boss?

As often as I write about choosing the right employee for your team, it’s equally important that assistants and team members are able to choose the right boss. And sometimes when I work with private clients it’s a hard pill to swallow that the boss is the one being unreasonable in her demands, attitude or constant changes.

Are you Demanding Too Much, Too Soon?

It’s okay to have high expectations of your team and want the best for for business. But if you’re overly demanding and expect perfection from day one then it’s likely that you’ll just drive away great people.

Recently I heard of one support team who expected the new guy to spend no more than 2 hours a week building up systems from nothing – while also attending a live call. Some may be able to work up to that level of multi-tasking but doing it on the fly is a tad unreasonable.

For the majority of new hires, training is essential to build the team you want who meets your expectations. But just as the owner didn’t pick up best practices in a day your team won’t either.

No team member is perfect so to expect perfection on day one is unrealistic.

How you Treat Your Team Matters

While I lovingly call my team “minions” your own attitude toward your team is so much more than titles. If you’ve ever worked with someone who has an immense sense of entitlement you know just how frustrating it can be. Some bosses are impossible to satisfy, always complaining and generally make the work environment a negative place to be.

Don’t be that boss.

At She’s Got Systems we focus on values and treating each other on the team and our clients with respect and care, staying in integrity by never promising something we can’t deliver – this applies equally to work deadlines which would be impossible to meet and employee hours which can’t be fulfilled.

Wishy Washy, meet Flip Flopper

Of course things change in your business as things grow but if you’re the type of leader who changes his mind daily, if not hourly then your team is going to have a hard time keeping up. We’ve seen this in big picture stuff like the priority of the team (if everything is the most important task then nothing has importance) all the way down to the small things like changing email signatures every week.

Flexibility is great and you’ll likely need a team that can adapt to changes and not get hung up on the way things used to be done. But if you leave a trail of chaos in your path then you’re leading your team to destruction.

How your team thrives is largely dependent on you and, I hate to be so blunt, but you’re the one who has to be responsible for choosing, training, nurturing and guiding the right team members or your business will likely flounder and fail.

It’s all part of the fun of entrepreneurship and the self growth that comes with it. If you’re afraid you’ve been one of “those” bosses in the past do yourself a favor and ask your most blunt and honest friend for feedback. And, if you’re truly brave, contact some of the current or past team members and get their honest feedback as well.