boss | The Caleb Barney Collection

Leadership and making mistakes…

Give people permission to make mistakes and the obligation to learn from them.

We all make mistakes – always have and always will. Think back to a time when you were young and impressionable, when you were inexperienced at something…when you wade a mistake, did your teacher/mentor/parent berate you for making a mistake? If they did (and you consistently received this negative feedback), you may still carry some of that baggage with you today. You might be too scared to take any chances at all, for fear of “messing up.” But if you never try anything new because you might make a mistake, you’ll severely limit your growth. You are capable of so much, but you will often have to try and fail many things before building off of those experiences.

If you’re in a position of “power,” whether that’s being an employer, boss, manager, parent, mentor, role model, teacher, coach, etc., make sure you let those around you know that it’s ok to make mistakes! They shouldn’t be happy that they made a mistake and should always try to learn and grow from their mistakes, but despite their best intentions, sometimes they still will slip up. (We all do.)

Make sure you’re creating an environment that knows people have permission to make mistakes, but the obligation to learn from them.

Living a fulfilled work life

To have a fulfilled work life, find the intersection of the following:

1. What you LOVE doing. The work will feel “light” or easy most days because you enjoy what you do.

2. What you’re GREAT at doing. Everyone likes being good at what they do. It brings internal satisfaction, but also can bring external recognition.

3. What people will PAY you to do. Ultimately, you have to make a living. Being paid (and paid well) will help to ease any internal concerns you may have about whether or not you made the right career choice.

On hiring others and getting out of the way

“The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good people to do what he wants done, and self restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it.” – Theodore Roosevelt

Delegate them get out of the way! Don’t micromanage! You hired them because they are smart, qualified, and the right person for the job, right?

Once you’ve trained them and have the systems and processes in place for them to succeed, let them do it. There will be bumps in the road and nobody is perfect, but if you let them learn without catastrophic consequences, they’ll be better off for it and you will too.

Expectations when at the top and at the bottom

These two sayings are slightly related, but are coming from opposite ends of the spectrum.

The first is a slightly modified saying from Shakespeare. “Heavy is the head that wears the 👑 ,” refers to the weight of responsibility that one feels being the leader.

This saying can also be interpreted as having so much expected of you when you’re “at the top.” In sports, you can see this at the team level when the opponents bring their “A” game to every matchup of the previous season’s championship winner. The defending champs have to bear the weight that comes with high expectations.

The other quote is from Gary Vaynerchuck. He says that “being underestimated is a gift.” In this case, you don’t have expectations from others placed on you and your responsibilities may be limited. Take advantage of this because you are able to work in the dark. It’s so much easier to exceed expectations and to impress when you are underestimated.

Being underestimated is a gift. Stop trying to convince, just execute.

Regardless of where you are in this spectrum (the boss/leader wearing the crown or the new employee starting at the bottom of the totem pole), put on your blinders and go to work. Focus on what you can control and execute that to the best of your ability. If you do the right thing long enough and consistently enough, eventually you can work your way to the top.

5 Rules to succeed at the workplace

1) Be the hardest worker in the room. Get there first, leave there last, and be productive when you’re there. Work when you’re at work.

2) Question everything internally first. If a rule, a way of doing things, or a story doesn’t make sense to you, try to earnestly figure it out and come up with a solution. If you always question an authority figure out loud (and especially if you do it in front of others), it will be viewed as being disrespectful. But if you bring things to their attention when you don’t understand and you do it in private, they can respect that (as long as their ego is in check).

3) Be humble, yet confident. Let your actions and the results speak for you. Keep your head up, put a smile on your face, have good posture/don’t slouch, speak clearly/enunciate, speak loudly but not too loud, look at others in the eyes when you’re talking with them, and keep an open mind to changing/forming new opinions.

4) Don’t engage in gossip unless you are speaking positively about someone else/building them up. Never say something behind someone’s back that you wouldn’t say to their face. If you would say it to their face and it’s a big enough deal to bother you, bring that person aside and talk it out.

5) Stay in your lane, but be aware of what is happening in the lanes around you. Nobody wants someone in another department to butt in and tell them how to do their job. Focus on your tasks and your responsibilities. BUT, have a good understanding of what other departments do, what they do well and what they can improve upon. You don’t need to know how they do what they do, but if you want to rise in the ranks, you should at least know what they do.