So in keeping with the theme of respect from my last blog,
let’s talk about employees respecting their bosses. This is a soap box of mine and has been for
many years since I worked for a boss I had no respect for. I worked with him in a large nonprofit and we had a running argument
over the saying lead by example. He was
the CEO of the organization but constantly came in late for meetings if he
showed up at all, dressed in the summer like he was heading for the beach (cuts
off and all) and made it clear that he hated to raise money (which is a lot of
what he did).
I went in to the job with a lot of hope, but left four years
later, with little respect for him, the board, or the organization he ran. I tried to fill in where he was slacking, ran
meetings with or without him on time and told my employees that there was a
dress code we all followed regardless of what he did. This was probably one of the most stressful
times of my life.
Working for a boss who had no idea of the concept of leading
by example was hard. If you, as the boss aren’t willing to do whatever it
takes to run your business, why should your employees? There should be no job you can’t or won’t do
whenever it’s needed. Our joke here is
that we clean out the storage space, take out the trash and clean the toilets
when we have to- it’s part of a nonprofit employee’s job. And we do it when necessary. So, think about how your employees view you
and if you do the things you ask of them- it’s what leading by example is all
about.
Suzanne Cormier
Executive Director
BizWorks (Small Business Incubator)
Follow Suzanne Cormier on Facebook and
Twitter @BizWorksCenter
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