May 11, 2023
Reflecting on my journey as a supervisor, executive producer, and director, I'll never forget what it was like to get my first PAID leadership position. Sure, I've led my high school and college speech and improv teams - which is not easy considering we were all still fairly new human beings. But leading my peers in the somewhat sheltered world of education did not prepare me for real working environment where the differences in age can be 20+ years!
How can you be a good boss in this environment? Well, that's objective, obviously. Some reports like being left alone. Some reports need guidance and lots of feedback. Some reports probably hate that you got the job and not them. All these needs will change over time as they begin to understand corporate structures and where they would like to be one day.
Becoming a good boss can be a mystery, how do you make the leap to leading a team and when you get there, how do you avoid being the boss YOU ABSOLUTELY CAN NOT STAND?! Well, I don't want you to focus on words like good and bad - because of the objectivity and judgement those words can carry. I want you to focus on being a Round Boss.
This article will focus on people who just got the promotion, are still new to being a boss, or just would like a refresher on why they became a boss in the first place.
My concept to effective leadership is simple, and as stated above, I call it being A Round Boss. The quickest way to show you what I mean is with the visual below. Here is a circle divided into 4 sections named Mindfulness, Experience, Skill, and Change. (And I know this image is not perfect, but embracing imperfections are a part of mindfulness which I will go into in another article).
Before going into each section, I want to explain how I landed at the title and idea of A Round Boss. Those words bring to mind the idea of being well-rounded which is a concept I think too many people take for granted. Also, round things move and are paramount to our evolution as animals who use tools. Sure we need rigid structures for different kinds of work...but being a leader needs flexibility and movement in order to manage a team effectively. One's experiences, skills, mindfulness, and ability to change are paramount to becoming a successful and respected leader.
What always frustrated me as a direct report was knowing that my boss was not able or could even understood what I was working on. Every position I've had as a supervisor and manager, I've led with the experience of being an assistant, somewhere WAY DOWN on the entry level chain. I would use those not-so-great experiences I had with my bosses to inform me on how I wanted to lead.
What did I want as a production assistant?
- A path to getting to the jobs I really wanted to do.
What did I want as an assistant editor?
-The ability to learn and grow within my position so I could become an editor one day.
As an executive producer, I have the confidence that I can help or at least have the knowledge of how each person on my set is doing their job. This makes it easier for me to hire great team members and employees because I know what to look for in a director of photography, a producer, a sound engineer, etc. - because I've done that kind of work before!
Disclaimer: Thank you for reading this far. Since this is my first article, I see this series evolving and I reserve the right to edit and revise this as I discover what fits here and what doesn't. Please have patience as I may end up changing my mind!
In summary, here are the quick hits of each section for your reference and serves as the quickest distillation of what I've learned as a boss, so you can be a Round Boss, too!
I could write many, many pages about the importance of mindfulness. In my work life, there wasn't a job more important to my growth than working at Headspace Health. It was here that I saw meetings led with meditations, led with vulnerability, and accepted the imperfections each one of us has. Do you have to meditate to be mindful? No, it helps, but no.
To me, it is about doing something meditative, something that puts you in that mysterious "zone" athletes talk so much about. This can be a routine, a sip of tea while looking out the window, a run, golf...whatever activity that brings you a sense of peace, is being mindful of your inner and outer surroundings. Rest is productivity. I'll say it again, REST IS PRODUCTIVITY and that is what meditation can give you, a space to just rest and experience the fullness of BEING without DOING anything. Mindfulness will provide you the much-needed space to make decisions, to keep your emotions in check, and to ensure you keep the human in human resources alive and well.
Experience IS the difference between a first-year teacher and a effective ten-year teacher. There is an invisible thread a memorable ten-year teacher weaves in their classroom. You can't see it, but you can feel it. We have all had effective and very ineffective teachers, so we know the difference - physically, it's that experienced teachers know how to command respect while also being kind and receptive to their students' needs. Experienced teachers know how much force to throw down when needed as well(e.g. "Do not cross this line," or "If you don't turn in your homework by tomorrow morning you'll get a zero on the assignment). None of us liked the "Yelly" teacher or one that never opened up to us. Remember that as you become a boss.
Now, teaching for ten years doesn't guarantee effectiveness because you could be doing ineffective teaching methods for ten years, taking no feedback, and just coast on the same curriculum year after year (I've seen and experienced this!) The effective, experienced teachers remember what it was like to be a frustrated student, they remember how their favorite teachers got them to love learning, and effective teachers are so motivated to see their students succeed (more so than even their own success!).
Whether you know it or not, as a boss, you are now becoming a teacher. I know I realized this because I used to teach high school and the parallels would show themselves to me all the time. Use all of your experiences to your advantage, even if you've never formally taught before. For example, who doesn't tip better when they've been servers and waiters themselves? If you do this, you're already showing characteristics of an effective leader - empathy followed by rewarding quality work! Effective teachers do the same thing.
Skill is different than experience. You can have ten years of experience as a teacher and still suck at it. Skill can come and go, so effective skills are sharpened so you can do your job most effectively. The best are always learning, training, and even changing how they do their job!
The hardest thing for me as I became a manager and not an individual contributor anymore... was knowing I was going to lose the speed of some of my skills. As a post supervisor, I am barely editing any more (and you really shouldn't be editing, a topic for another article) so I know I had to start leaving that part of my career behind. Now, that doesn't mean I've stopped editing...it just means, I know I may not be the best editor on my team anymore! And so it should be.
What helped was telling myself, I am now a player-coach. I've seen a thing or two in this industry and can lead less skilled and experienced editors to the Promise Land of a Championship (or a promotion, raise, accolade, etc, as I dive deeper into this baseball analogy).
So, what are you doing to sharpen your skills now that you're a boss? Are you learning the latest trends in your industry? Attending conferences, webinars, trying betas of software your team uses all the time?
Perhaps if you are in post-production, are you giving yourself a project to edit so you don't forget what it's like to be in the bay? I know my ability to open a project and speak the same language as an editor and producer got my respect and the ears of my reports. You don't need to be the best anymore, but you should be the best guide you can be for your reports as they work on their skills.
Ah, my favorite part of this circle because the ability for a boss, and a company for that matter, to change, will literally decide the fate and the profitability of a company long-term. I've seen titans of industry crumble and go through round after round of layoffs until they completely disappear from our consciousness as a business and then inevitably, become a nostalgic meme.
Being open to change, being open to ideas, and being open to listening to what your customers and report need and dare I say, actually do what they are asking for, will make you a more effective boss.
Change is good, change is healthy...but it must be managed by a skillful, mindful, and experienced boss to do it effectively...otherwise your reports and company will resent change as it fails to take hold and will be less and less likely to do it in the future.
That's my introduction to the Round Boss method. Interested in hearing more? I'm available for leadership and management consulting and you can set up a consultation with me via my scheduling button at the top of the home page.
