Seattle Small Business Blog

There’s a difference between being a boss and a leader. Which one are you?

Webster’s definitions of a boss include: A person who exercises control over others and makes decisions, usually the person of highest rank or authority, a supervisor, a person who commands in a domineering manner.

In contrast the definitions for a leader include: A person who rules, guides, inspires, escorts, directs, influences, persuades, and is out and ahead of or at the head of others. They have influence, power, and commanding authority over those they lead. They tend toward a certain goal or result, are in the foremost position, and usually “pull” people toward what becomes a common vision. People usually follow a leader because they want to rather than have to.

Influential leaders, who lead with great ethics, whether they are Presidents, Kings, corporate CEOs, Girl Guide or Scout leaders, bear some traits in common. They are passionate about what they do and what they believe in; they are visionaries, can see the “big picture,” and are driven inside to draw people into what they believe – to jump on the train with them.

A boss in a grocery store sees shelves that need to be stocked, employees that need to be scheduled, doors that need fixed, floors that need to be cleaned, and the year-end staff social that needs to be planned. They work toward these ends, seeing them to fulfillment, sometimes in very creative ways.

A leader in a grocery store sees those things too, but he or she also feels excitement about being in business, or about making profit from people’s need for food and daily household products and how that profit can be poured back into the store to make it superior over other grocery stores. They care about and inspire, their staff, realizing that they are the front line ambassadors of the store. They not only see where the store is at now, but they also envision what it will look like or how it will impact their community ten years from now. Whether they actually own the store or not, they make the store their own.

With a good leader, people usually feel drawn, or “pulled”, into the same vision. Have you ever gone into a store or restaurant and been treated so well by the staff there that you just knew that you would return again? Not only did you just receive knock-your-socks-off customer service, but you also met employees empowered by the vision of a true leader.

A leader usually develops and motivates leaders under them. People who get “fired-up” and captivated by the vision and rise to the occasion.

For leaders, leadership is a way of life. If there’s leadership spontaneously required at a gathering, leaders will step up to bat, even if it’s just to open a door as people arrive.

Can a boss be a leader? Definitely.

The question is: Which one are you? Or rather, maybe the question should be: Which one would you like to be?

There is a famous story in business articles and productivity books. It’s often attributed to different people and the exact dollar figure that the consultant was paid is always different.

But the story goes something like this: A man was concerned that he wasn’t being very productive. So he asked a consultant for a suggestion. That consultant made a profound suggestion that worked! He told the man to do the following: before leaving work at the end of the day, list the top three things he wanted to accomplish the following day. Then, when he got into work the next day, he should tackle them in order, not starting one until the one before it was complete. He was to keep working until he finished all three. Then he could be done for the day.

This story has taken on a life of its own and it is retold in every productivity book, but it never grows old. That’s because the truth of this tale, no matter how fictional the story itself is, is universal.

If you want to be successful in business – whether your business is online or offline – you need to know what you want to accomplish and prioritize it.

Now, the story itself was clearly written in an era when the owner of a business had a plush office and a company car and could come and go as he or she pleased. Nowadays, most online business owners work out of their homes (and sometimes have another job until their small business grows) so the story needs to be tweaked and updated for the modern entrepreneur.

The new moral of the story might be this: Prioritize everything! Rather than listing the top three items to be done, list everything and assign a number (from 1 to infinity… and for most entrepreneurs, the list seems that long!).

Then, get to work. Start at one and begin working down. Periodically you’ll have to re-prioritize as changes occur in your business. Task management programs such as Microsoft Outlook can help with prioritization. Even just a Microsoft Word document with an auto-numbering feature is better than nothing.

If you start working on the first one and keep going until you cannot work any more on it, then move to the next point on your list, you’ll see two things happen:

First, your productivity will increase dramatically because you’ll have started to hone in on doing what needs to be done.

And, second, you will work far more efficiently because you know the most important thing to do and you’re doing it first, before everything else.

If you employ people in your business, you’re going to be faced with a number of tricky management issues – dealing with tardiness, sick leave, and keeping your staff motivated.

Performance reviews can be useful for motivating employees, but only if they are accurate. An inaccurate review, which fails to recognize the employee’s value to the organization, can be worse than no review at all.

If a performance review fails to take note of an employee’s shortcomings, it won’t be taken seriously. If an employee consistently performs poorly, it’s vital to document this, as well as any corrective action that is taken.

Your staff may be genuinely unaware that their performance in some areas is poor (or exceptional!), unless you tell them.

Most employers conduct performance reviews annually, in order to decide on salary increases and bonuses. Since performance reviews should build on previous reviews, it’s better to conduct them more regularly – every 4 months is a good frequency.

Employees thrive on feedback, and regular performance reviews provide a consistent framework for providing positive reinforcement.

Under-performing employees can also benefit. Regular reviews can identify weak performance areas, and allow you to set clear goals and expectations, and to coach and mentor the employee to improve their performance.

Objectivity is vital. You need to concentrate on measuring performance, and not on quirks of personality.

The performance review should relate directly to the employee’s job profile – your employees do have job profiles, or job descriptions, don’t they? The job profile should identify the Key Performance Areas for the job. For instance, some Key Performance Areas for a receptionist might be:
* answer incoming calls within 3 rings
* take messages accurately and pass them on quickly
* type at a rate of 25 words a minute

The more measurable a Key Performance Area, the better. Some other measurable Key Performance Areas include:
* number of sick days
* number of absent days
* number of instances of tardiness
* number of customer complaints
* number of customer compliments
* number of co-worker complaints

Of course, you would have to keep accurate records of all of these, in the employee’s personal file.

You should prepare a performance review form for each employee, which lists the Key Performance Areas for the job, and provides a matrix for you to record the performance in each area.

For example, you might rate the employee’s performance in each Key Performance Area against a scale of ‘Poor, Satisfactory, Good, Very Good, Excellent’

Performance reviews should be a collaborative process – as far as possible, the employee should agree with your assessment.