The Secret to Being a Great Boss

Summary

• When you're a leader, it's important to show certainty. This helps your team feel stable and secure.
• Think of it like when a child falls and a parent reassures them that it's normal to hurt. The child feels immediate relief.
• If you're a new leader and unsure if the struggles and pain of growth are normal, you can't reassure your team effectively.
• Without reassurance, your team feels unstable and insecure, which makes it hard for them to be excited about work.
• Experienced leaders can quickly say, "That's normal and it's okay," which helps their team feel secure and motivated.
• It's normal for a team to feel uncomfortable during growth phases, and it's important to communicate that it's okay.

Video

How To Take Action

To boost your small business, personal growth, or leadership journey, here are some suggestions based on key insights:

Show Certainty and Assurance

Embrace Certainty: Show certainty and confidence in your leadership. When your team members sense that you are sure of the direction and decisions, they feel more secure and focused. Even if you're unsure, projecting confidence can help everyone feel more at ease.

Normalize Discomfort in Growth: Communicate to your team that feeling uncomfortable is a normal part of the growth process. Explain that discomfort is a sign of progress and that it’s okay to experience it. For a business or personal journey, understanding this can help you embrace challenges without fear.

Reassure Your Team

Be Open About Struggles: Share your own struggles and growth experiences with your team. Showing that you understand and have experienced similar issues can offer immense reassurance. It builds trust and shows that it's okay to face difficulties.

Frequent Check-Ins: Regularly check in with your team to see how they're feeling. Use these opportunities to reassure them that what they are experiencing is normal. This makes them feel supported and understood.

Develop Leadership Skills

Learn from Experienced Leaders: Seek mentors or engage with more experienced leaders to understand their perspectives. Learning from their experiences can help you gain the confidence to reassure your team effectively.

Continuous Learning: Invest time in leadership workshops or online courses. Growing your skills doesn't always mean spending a lot of money; many free or low-cost resources can help you develop the certainty you need to lead effectively.

Create a Positive Work Environment

Positive Reinforcement: Regularly acknowledge and celebrate small wins within your team. Positive reinforcement helps maintain motivation and shows that progress is appreciated, even when it's slow.

Build a Supportive Culture: Foster a culture where team members feel safe to express their concerns. Create an open-door policy where they can discuss their discomforts and get the reassurance they need without fear of judgment.

Implementing these strategies doesn't require a significant investment of money or time, but they can significantly improve how your team feels about their work and your leadership.

Full Transcript

leaders that don't demonstrate certainty do not create people that feel stability and think about it when you're a kid and you fall and it hurts and somebody says that's okay and that's normal that it hurts you feel immediate relief but if you're a new leader and you don't know if it's supposed to hurt or not and somebody looks to you and says is it okay that it hurts and you say I don't know they don't feel immediate relief and I think that's the biggest disadvantage of a new leader is that they don't know that all the things that they're experiencing and all the pain of growth that their team experiences is normal and so they can't give them that reassurance and so then their teams feel unstable they feel like they're constantly in a place of insecurity uh and change whereas people who are experience that can just say like that's normal and it's okay have teams that feel secure they feel good about their jobs and they're excited for work every day because they know it's normal to feel uncomfortable and it's actually okay