My Business Hero
We all know someone who has that one boss, the one person that goes that little extra mile to help you, the one that lets you leave early so you can put your child to bed, the one that remembers it’s your birthday when you think the whole office hasn’t bothered with you. Some people have that one boss who has taught them something, something they have carried with them throughout their lives.
I’m sitting here looking over “The Best Boss Awards 2015″ website that my company is sponsoring and it suddenly dawned on me that everything I have learnt about work, and everything I have carried with me has come from much closer to home. My dad ran a successful company for over 20 years and some of the simplest things I learnt from him have become a sort of staple to how I conduct myself. Looking back I never realised how influential my dad was or how much he did to get to where he was, as a child you remember missed birthdays and how you didn’t get your bedtime story, but you miss the long hours and the years of scrimping that came before you to get to those birthdays. My dad gave us a good life – his work ethic was to go where the work took him and over many years my dad would leave for Dubai with an hours’ notice. We reaped the benefits his business brought and as I got older I realised my dad missed out on a lot of mundane things I now take for granted with my own daughter to give us a quality of life that I can’t give her.
I didn’t have a rich childhood because my dad earned good money, I had a rich childhood because despite this, what he taught me will last longer than any money.
1) Have passion
One thing I always notice when my retired dad reminisces about his company is how his eyes light up. Life makes people cynical but however tiring it gets you can’t fake a genuine love for something and it completely changes a person’s face when they talk. My dad becomes a different man. He loved his work, he put up with the travelling and the unpredictability, and he even bore the missed milestones and the distance from my mum easier because he had this passion. To hear that he had so many years doing something he loved……well only a few of us are lucky enough to say they are doing exactly what they want. How can you settle with anything less after this?
2) Qualifications have no bearing on success
When I cried because I didn’t get good enough exam results to get into a literature university my dad told me grades weren’t everything and that he didn’t have a qualification to his name. Common sense and a business head cannot be taught, and despite leaving school at 15 my dad became more successful than the degrees and the bits of paper that those around him treasured. My dad is an intelligent man, great with numbers, articulate and extremely well learned but leaving school with nothing made him have to show off skills that today are in short supply – grit, resilience and respect. Now when I read CVs of others and impressive qualifications are missing I think of what my dad achieved without them – it is possible.
3) People will not always behave the way you will. Be the exception always. One of the things that never fails to shock me is this. No matter how many times candidates don’t turn up for interviews, how many clients screw you over or how many times you are left speechless by someones rudeness at work I am ALWAYS surprised. Don’t be, he says. There will be people who care, and there will be people who wont. There WILL be people who will behave the way you do, but accept it as the minority and move on. My job, he says, is to be the exception and make myself stand out.
4) Everybody has a price
Probably the thing that stays with me the most at work is that everybody has a limit. There is always something that will push a button in someone whether it be the trigger to make an employee of 20 years, loyal to his company finally leave, or the reason to why a client suddenly drops you with no explanation. There is an explanation, you are just not privy to it. If you spend your days remembering that it becomes so much less of a personal attack on you.
At school I was taught that good grades would get me to the top – they haven’t. I know a lot of very successful people who studied for years and are now, quite deservedly, in very good jobs. I already stress to my 6 year old the importance of listening at school and learning….but for me the most influential person I have learnt from is the man with no school recognition whatsoever. When people I do business with praise my character, my attitude and my credibility I don’t put it down to my schooling, my slightly more privileged than manys upbringing, or from the work experience I got through my early twenties – I credit it solely to my dad, a man I am still learning from.
Orchard are proud to sponsor The Best Boss Awards 2015. Is your boss a SUPERSTAR or a great MENTOR? Do they always act fairly & go the EXTRA MILE for their team? If so nominate them for an award. If YOU do, then YOU can win a Jamie Oliver voucher for £50 AND a new LAPTOP. Open to businesses in EN, N, SG, WD, HA, HP postal districts. Be the FIRST to nominate…TODAY http://www.bestbossawards.co.uk
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