Have you ever wondered how some people become bosses? I mean I am pretty sure we have all been through this experience. You are talking to a boss, or know someone who is a boss, and as you are talking to them you realized they don’t have a clue of what they are doing. Don’t get me wrong, there are quite a few good bosses out there, and I know a few that I like to use a lot of their leadership methods when I interact with people.
Now, the reason I am bringing this is up, is because it is fresh on my mind. Today I had one of those experiences and it made me think – how did they get to where they are. The person was very nice, but their knowledge of the process we were covering is probably a 2 out of 10. My task was to document a billing process and when I began recording our Zoom meeting, I was amazed at how they were all over the place. The person could not remember some of the processes and would jump around from one point in the process to another. Before I continue telling you what happen, I did go back to the recording and after listening to it, the process was literally maybe 10 steps, but the meeting went on for an hour. Also, the person asked me to schedule another 1 and ½ hour meeting for next week to go over additional steps in this process. Back to the meeting, as the individual was explaining the process, which is billing our clients, the person began to share spreadsheets that are used to perform some of the calculations and of course organize the products and pricing. Please, you should have seen these spreadsheets, I am so sorry to say, but they looked like a 3-year-old put them together. The spreadsheets were incredibly unorganized, with sheets upon sheets, and tables placed like in just the most unrealistic position on the spreadsheet. So unorganized, trust me even if you really did not know how to use Excel, you could still organize the data a lot better, easier to visually find and calculate what needs to be calculated – it was a big mess. The folder, let me tell you about the folder where they stored these spreadsheets; it had copies upon copies, so the person was having trouble locating the right spreadsheet. As we continued with the meeting the individual would explain one process, jump to another point in the process and then return to the process just explained but explained it differently, and then letting me know, to forget what was just said and started all over. I will have my work cut out for me trying to review the recording and extract the process.
The thing is that this individual was a user acceptance tester, and mostly tested new features within a company software application and somehow this individual is now the Director of the billing department, and the funny thing is that the person mentions during the meeting that they were not familiar with the processes and was promoted to this new department without been familiar of what the department did. A few more comments during this recorded meeting, which I was surprised, made it clear that the individual does not have a clue and was not interested in finding one.
It brings me to my point and this is simply one example. I know I have come across individuals that are in a management authority and simply are bad, but at the same time you come across individuals that are not in management, but are the ones that take action, get things done, make everyone feel like part of the team, teach, encourage and yet they are not in management. Now, I know a few individuals like that, and I have asked the question of why they did not apply for that manager’s positions and most tell me they don’t want the extra headaches and a very few have told me they tried time and time again and someone else gets promoted – which end up to be a bad boss. I come to think and I know that this is not something new, but I believe it really comes down to who you know – right. Yeah the company may talk about equal opportunities, but when the qualified person applies for that management position they are overlooked and that one person that you ask yourself, how in the world did they get this position, ends up getting that position – strange how things work. It does tell me though that not everyone is cut out to be in management, and over the years I come to think that people should not become managers to manage people but instead become a leader so that you can lead people – that is my thought on that. Like I said I am still blown away at what happened to me and I have no words. All I can do at this time is do my best to get the right information down so that individuals can get their work done accurately and as streamlined as possible.
Once again thank you for stopping by and reading and I leave you with this thought, “Yes you will come across individuals that will push your buttons or make you think what the heck, but stay focus on you and what you need to get done. Don’t; be afraid to get the information that is necessary to complete a project and do not feel bad if you happen to call someone out, of course, do it professionally and kindly. The point is, to never give up and if you feel you belong in management go for it, but in the meantime always find ways to improve your people skills so that you will be that great leader”.