After a long, tiring running around chasing for prospects, attending to suppliers and driving long tiring distance, the last thing I wanted to see in my phone text messaging are comments from boss saying you shouldn’t do this, you shouldn’t do that, etc. He is beginning to get on my nerves. It’s been only one year, and the true colours of my boss are starting to show. With nobody to keep him in check would he be the next emperor in my little branch office?
Granted he isn’t as terrorizing as my previous boss, but as a person in authority, he can still wreck havoc in my work life. Are all Japanese bosses like this? It does seem so. Even the visiting Japanese big kahuna who accompanied the supplier also made comment that we as a branch company should do this, should not do that, etc. oh c’mon! Are they clones or what? No personality at all!
Each of us are individual with our own strength and weakness. We are not the same and certainly not created equal. Some are bold and go getters, some are humble and with a servitude attitude. In fact, our approach to clients are not the same. Managers that tries to mould each sales person to be an exact clone are poor managers. What works for him does not work for another. All they create are discord that only lead to demotivation. A down and out staff with low morale cannot work because he will be very dissatisfied and will have no energy to even get up in the morning to go to work, let alone do anything of value to the company. Reminds me of the Hertzberg Hygiene-Motivator model. A bad boss is a dirty boss, which means the hygiene factor is not clean leading to poor morale in the work staff. Forget about motivations, it won’t work because the work place is not clean.
Unfortunately Peter Drucker point about manager being promoted to its position of incompetence holds true. The person may be good at doing sales and coordinating sales, but is totally a buffoon when he comes to managing staff and staff morale.
I like to think out of the box to solve a situation, but often times I’m hem in by bosses who enforces rules strictly by the book and rules laid down who else but by them. That leaves me in an unenviable position. Bosses can break their own rules, they can be a hypocrite, but as a subordinate, I can’t. Without being able to bend and break rules, sales cannot be achieved, problems cannot be solved. Leading to very high stress levels at work.
Have you ever experience your boss saying one thing then later saying another at another time contradicting himself? And because you obeyed his earlier statement, you are now being reprimanded because in order for boss to justify his statement, he now has to contradict himself and blame you for your actions taken which so happen was following an earlier statement?
This reminds of this joke:
Rule#1: The boss is always right
Rule#2: If the boss is wrong, see rule number #1.
Ya, ya, it is not funny if you are at the short end of the stick.
That is why; I would like to start my own business, to have the freedom to call the shots. To be able to think out of box, create business without fear and retribution. It has its risk, but whoever became financially free without taking on risk?
To paraphrase the reason for taking risk:
To laugh is to risk appearing the fool.
To weep is to risk appearing sentimental.
To reach out for another is to risk involvement.
To expose feeling is to risk exposing your true self.
To place your ideas, your dreams, before the crowd, is to risk their loss.
To love is to risk not being loved in return.
To live is to risk dying.
To hope is to risk despair.
To try is to risk failure.
– Author unknown.
And thus I shall risk yet again. It is not that I have not failed. Dare to fail? Yes, I did. It cost me money, time and effort. The project didn’t gather momentum. I tried another, I got a modicum of result. It’s still a struggle to achieve results. But as the lessons shows in Napolean Hill’s Think and Grow Rich book; you may have failed on 99 tries, but success is just around the corner and who knows the 100th try may be the success that you so well wish for to happen to become true!
And so I shall go forth again into the unknown of taking on risk. See you on the other side of success!