Do you want the support of your boss? Want him or her to have your back? We all want that, don’t we?
Rick the Boss used to tell me, “I don’t care if you take risks as long as your paperwork’s done.” He meant that as long as my timesheets and expense reports were in and approved (which meant that rules had been obeyed and minimum billed hours met), as long as I was clear on which critical rules to follow and was following them, I was free to take big risks.
Support for Big Scary Risks
As long as I wasn’t asking him to excuse me or cover for me on the fundamentals he expected me to respect, he was saying he’d have my back and support me on the scary-big sales opportunities I was good at. As long as my paperwork was done.
It’s A Transaction
I came to understand that it wasn’t a matter of Rick trusting me, trusting that I could succeed at scary-big sales; it was a transaction between us. Are you taking care of your boss on the fundamentals so he can have your back on the scary-big stuff?
Are you? In what ways could you cover the fundamentals better so that your boss can have your back? Please Comment.
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