Top Dog to Super Dog

I went from employee to business owner to employee when I sold my business.



I am very thankful for the experience because suddenly I was able to see all my "boss mistakes" ....(I cant recall the number of times I thought to myself " Oh my God.. is this how I would have appeared in their eyes when I was their boss??")

I am also very thankful to my team members who let me in as an employee and helped me see through the eyes of an employee. Its really quite funny , what total idiots we make of ourselves as bosses

If the people who report to us could say what they really wanted to say , it would sound like this :

1. Stop operating in a vacuum and making decisions that affect us without consulting us
2. Stop taking yourself so seriously, its quite funny when you rant and rave, you look like a spoilt brat!
3. Make time to know us better, your job is not the only important job around here
4. Say thank you - didn't your mother teach you any manners?
5. Stop taking my ideas and making it look like yours, have you no shame?
6. Say sorry, you wont melt
7. Smile and laugh out loud - don't worry,the gold in your mouth wont drop out!
8. Give me a break!!! -We all have families too, mortgages to pay and sleepless nights, your life challenges are not bigger than ours just because you are the boss.

Sometimes , I wonder if we grew up exactly like the way we were when we were kids. When you watch kids in the playground, you can almost see the roles they will play when they grow up...there is always a bully boss amongst them!

And then there is a flip side to all this and I remember as an employer, I would get well meaning people who would automatically assume that because I was the boss, I was also the Big Bad Wolf! There have been times when I have had to tell these people to stop because there were many occasions when i felt victimised as the boss/employer and thinking exactly the same thoughts as the ones listed above but of my employees!! ( points 1-8)

....When you take a closer look at it all, it boils down to "basic humanness" - whether you are an employer or employee. We all look for the same things, perhaps the context may be different but its still about how we relate to each other.

So much wounding takes place at work and I am not talking about health and safety here. Those of us, in leadership positions can make a big difference to the work world by leading the way and inspiring others to aspire to be better people

Top dogs are there by position...super dogs are there by permission!