In my twenties, I was ready to conquer the world and thought I knew everything that came my way. Growing up in the family business, I had watched and absorbed business operations and customer service for years. I had seen everything possible working with my Dad, or so my young mind thought.

My early years were spent working in retail, where I moved up the ladder very quickly, which empowered my eagerness to succeed and allowed me to do everything wrong with very little supervision. One amazing skill I had perfected was the ability to take a chaotic store and turn it into an efficient operation that achieved both sales and operational goals. I clearly had a lot to learn about how to motivate people.

Those early years were a classic case of Bad Management 101. Straight out of the textbook.

Working in the family business, I thought all managers yelled, demanded without listening, and pounded on the table when making a point. I did a great job implementing the “it’s my way or the highway” style of management. After all, I knew what I wanted, and I got what I wanted. A tight ship with efficient operations. Employees that followed my orders and feared the consequences of not getting the job done. A less than ideal vision.

These were employees and they got paid to do what I wanted. Why should I care about anything beyond the job getting done to my standard? The employee turnover meant that I could bring in more employees that saw things my way. The less-engaged employees could go home and eventually the low morale would be eliminated. Right?

I was that boss once… and it failed. It didn’t take long to learn I had left out a key component to the success of my vision. People.

Reaching your goals is nearly impossible when it’s you vs. your employees. Success begins when you assemble a team that is invested in the vision. Employees want to feel valued and invested in how the vision unfolds. Bottom-line: We all need to feel valued.

#iwasthatbossonce