Recently I have been appointed to become the Head of Search here at FireCask and it got me thinking about all the different types of “bosses” I have had in the past and what I have learnt and how I can share this with the team here (it’s also about time i actually contributed to the blog :D).
Firstly the title here is a little misleading.. I don't actually believe there are good “bosses” there are only good “leaders”- what I mean by this is simply that a boss will generally manage their staff and often (not always) will take a back seat, give an order and let their staff get on with it. Whilst this isn’t a bad thing, this also isn’t in my opinion the best way to work in an efficient team. I strongly believe that a large amount of bosses believe that their staff are there to carry out their instructions and do a damn good job of it - again this isn’t a bad thing but it brings me nicely on to my next point...

To rudely interrupt - we're hiring! Why not have a look at our current vacancy...

I Don't Manage, I Support

A leader will get out there in the thick of it and support the team rather than manage them. This in my opinion is the key here, we as senior staff are here to support our teams. I have personally experienced it before (not in this industry) where the bosses have stood on the shoulders of their staff’s successes and came down on them like a tonne of bricks when something hasn’t gone to plan.

I’m not saying I am an accomplished leader by any means - far from it! I am merely saying this is the style in which I prefer to work. I want to support the team, I want to develop them in their given fields and give them all the support they need to reach their goals.

My #1 Priority

This is probably the most important point of all…keeping staff happy! The people make the company not the other way around, happy staff perform better - this isn’t science it's a fact! It sounds obvious, but again I have personally experienced companies first hand who look after their management team and fail to support the every day staff, which is ridiculous because these guys are the ones who really make sure the important tasks are done and everything is running smoothly.

Finally...

There will be no doubt be people who agree and disagree with this post - as I mentioned, I don’t by any stretch consider myself a leader, this IS however the style in which I will be working with.

What are your opinions on this, do you agree?