A friend of mine happens to be self-employed and works from home. And she told me that whenever someone finds out, they often express a little bit of jealousy…
“Do you ever work in your jammies?”
“Have you ever taken a laptop to the beach to work?”
“So you get to set your own hours?”
“You can take a vacation whenever you want?”
When she gets a question like this, she tends to respond with, “Yes, but working for yourself isn’t as great as you might think—my boss is a real a*****e.”
People laugh, of course, but the sad thing is that this joke has more than a kernel of truth to it.
Whether you work for yourself or for an employer, the worst boss you’ve ever had is probably you.
We’re all responsible for our own careers. We decide which positions to take and which to leave. We choose which classes to take, which new skills to learn, and which “hot trends” we don’t think are worth investigating. To a large extent, we determine for ourselves whether we are making a significant contribution to our company’s success.
In other words, we are all our own bosses.
And all too often, we let ourselves down in our role as our own bosses. We make choices—or fail to make choices—that we later regret. We treat ourselves harshly. We under-invest in our personal development. We don’t give ourselves opportunities that would stretch us in a new direction. We fail to give ourselves permission to fail. We neglect to take the vacation time that we really need to perform at our best. And in general, we just don’t treat ourselves the way we would expect a great boss to treat us.
We all want a manager who is supportive and motivational. And all managers want employees that are reliable, smart, creative, and self-directed. When you can look at yourself as your own boss, you can play both of those roles well—or you can really let yourself down.
As a Sales Ops professional, you are in a very enviable position. You have the potential to make a very dramatic contribution to your company’s success. Few departments in the company can affect the bottom line as directly as sales ops can, and few companies are really taking advantage of all that sales ops function can offer.
So are you making the most of this opportunity—or are you letting it pass you by?
If you want to be your own best boss, we recommend starting with some of the career-focused resources in SellingBrew. For example, Taking Your Sales Operation to the Next Level reveals the steps leading sales operations teams are taking to transform themselves into a much more proactive and strategic business function. Advancing Your Career in Sales Ops offers some concrete steps that can help you take charge of your own career. How to Hire Great Sales Ops People lists the characteristics you should look for in teammates—which are also the characteristics you should develop in yourself. And Demonstrating the Value of Sales Ops provides some strategies for quantifying and communicating the impact and contribution of your Sales Operations team.
Don’t be an a*****e boss to yourself (or anyone else, for that matter). Start taking some simple steps that can help you be a better boss and employee. (And try to avoid showing up at the office in your jammies…unless you’re working from home.)
Taking Your Sales Operation to the Next Level
It's common for sales operations to get mired in tactical sales support and administrative activities. This four-part recorded training session reveals the steps leading sales operations teams are taking to transform themselves into a much more proactive and strategic business function.
Advancing Your Career in Sales Operations
There's never been a better time to be working in Sales Operations. But you can’t just sit back and hope that good things will happen. In this on-demand webinar, learn strategies and tactics for Sales Ops career development.
How to Hire Great Sales Ops People
How do you identify Sales Ops candidates with the raw materials to be most successful? In this on-demand webinar, you'll learn the most important attributes you should look for when building your team.
Demonstrating the Value of Sales Operations
As a relative newcomer on the corporate landscape, Sales Ops often struggles to secure resources and investment. In this on-demand webinar, learn about quantifying and communicating the impact and contribution of your Sales Operations team.
