Think Like a Boss and You Will Become One

Promotion at work is never accidental. People just don’t rise to the top in their careers because they are lucky. Luck may come through once or twice, but nobody becomes a rich and successful executive with only luck.

Also being skillful and good at your job doesn’t make you deserve a promotion. If you are skillful and great at your job, they will only be motivated to give you more to do.

The reward for hard work is more work

If you want to grow into the boss, you have to be more than “good at your job”. You must have seen people who are very hardworking get very little recognition, and some others that are not so hardworking get better rewards. It is not because life is unfair. Rather, what makes you a good worker isn’t the same thing that makes you a good boss.

Everybody desires to be a boss. Whether the boss of yourself or being in charge of other people. Being a boss is having the capacity to carry represent what you do in the best way. The traits that make a good boss or leader is different from what makes a good worker.

Here is an example:

Let’s assume the CEO of your company always wants the door of his office closed when anyone leaves his office. And now, someone just walked out of the office and (for some reason) did not close the door. A hardworking person will go and close that door. But that is not a leadership trait.

The one who has a leadership trait will call the one who didn’t close the door back, effectively communicate the instruction, and get the other person to close that door. That is the one who will become a boss.

When it is time for promotion, everybody might think such a person who displayed the leadership trait (as in the example) is not hardworking enough. But every good leader recognizes the leadership trait in others. And they reward it. You must always remember that people don’t get rewarded by leadership because they have been good followers.

If you want to be a boss, you have to start thinking like one when you are yet to be there

There are secrets that break open leadership qualities into pieces that can be applied very easily. Here are 7 of them:

1. Become important by thinking your work is important

I have seen people rise from janitors to executives. And it is not because they went to school, got some degrees and demanded a promotion. In some cases, the organization pays for their school so that nobody will be able to question the decision to promote them. This is because of their attitude to work and life.

Ray Dalio says there are 3 aspects to every person in this regard; skills, abilities, and values. Skills can be learned. Abilities can be improved. But values remain constant. You cannot really teach how people should think of their job.

If you think your job is not important, it probably isn’t. And the problem is that you will never be trusted with a superior responsibility. No serious person will give $1M to someone who failed at managing $100K. The key to growth and leadership is to manage the $10K you are responsible for today like it is $1B.

Dan Lok has a quote he loves that says; the way you do anything is the way you do everything. You have to think your work is more important than you think it is. It is the best way to grow in relevance in your workplace. Take your work very important.

If you take your work important, the necessary result will be that you grow important. Taking your job important is not just about doing it well. It is about doing it promptly. It would show in the way you talk about it (which is very vital).

2. Sell yourself to yourself

If you don’t think you can be a boss, nobody would think so. You have to accept the thought and believe it first. The proof of believing it will be you practicing being a boss when nobody is yet to recognize you.

If you are nominated for leadership on a very important and urgent matter (that has grave consequences if it fails), will you vote for yourself to take the position? If you don’t think you can, why should anybody think you can?

You have to sell yourself to yourself first. You have to convince yourself of your capability and potential to be a boss before others can be convinced.

3. Fill your leisure time with activities that boost your confidence

Leisure time for the one who wants to be a boss is not mere play. The play must be connected to an activity that boosts your confidence and psychology. Things like conversations with people that believe in you and hobbies that encourage your leadership tendencies.

Your confidence as a leader should not just be seen in your official work. Your confidence should cut across every facet of your life. In fact, great leaders notice how their subordinates handle simple challenges off work. Using leisure hours to feed your psychology and confidence makes leadership traits a natural flow from you.

4. Become more likable by making yourself lighter to lift

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Don’t be hard to please. Make yourself easy to please. Become easy to impress. This is so that others would actually like you to become their boss.

Have you ever had a boss that is hard to impress? The kind of boss everybody tries so hard to please. You can go to the moon and back on a project and you won’t even get any sense that it mattered. But when you make a tiny mistake, you hear it at the rooftops. You don’t want to position yourself to become a boss like that.

It is easier to make someone that everybody loves to work with the boss. You can be the most qualified person in the organization, but if no one likes to work with you, people will dread working for you. That will, in turn, cause the organization to lose talents. A true boss must be likable.

Be quick to point out other people’s genius. Praise publicly, criticize privately. Support people openly, hold them accountable privately. It is easier for such a person to rise to the top. If you are easier to lift, you will rise to the top quickly.

5. Practice conversational generosity

People who talk about themselves all the time are not as desirable as leaders. Good leaders are good listeners. And not just good listeners, they are active listeners. They ask questions and allow the other person to talk more.

Conversational generosity is allowing other people to talk even when you could have spent the whole time talking. People like leaders that make them express themselves.

Some bosses have workers that can journey to the end of the world for their sake. Some other bosses have workers who always try to avoid any kind of one-on-one meeting. The difference is that workers feel like a slave to the latter, while workers feel they have a guardian with the former. This perception is created through the presence or lack of conversational generosity.

This doesn’t mean that the leader doesn’t speak at all. In fact, a leader often controls the conversation even when they are generous with it. The words of a leader count more when the leader listens a lot.

6. Do something about your ideas

The difference between wannabes and those who become is action. Wannabes wish for something. Those who become take action.

Have you ever gone to your boss with an idea and they don’t listen? Or maybe they tossed it away. And then someone else (or another company) implements your idea and it worked. That can be very disheartening. But you must realize what was your mistake.

The mistake was that you went to those above you with an idea. That is a sign of a creative worker. It is not the sign of a leader. As a leader, you do something about your ideas. You don’t present an idea, you present a case. You present a result and not an idea. That is the mark of leadership.

Leaders are expected to take initiatives. If you are always seeking approval to take initiatives, you would very likely be overlooked for positions of leadership.

There are certain lengths you are not allowed to go before presenting your case to your bosses. But there is something you can always do to substantiate your idea. Always present something more than an idea. Do something about your ideas before presenting them.

7. Act like the person you want to become

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If you want to be a boss, act like one. Dress like a boss. Greet like a boss. Smile like a boss. Talk like a boss. If you don’t have a good leader you can model after, that can be a problem. You need to see it on someone else before you can effectively replicate it.

Don’t wait for the position, title or honor before you start acting like it. If you start acting like it, that promotion will come as an affirmation. But if you are waiting for the promotion to start acting like a leader, you may never get the promotion.

You may not be working in an organization with a corporate ladder. And your promotion at your work means more business to you such that you employ other people to work with you. But if you don’t become that kind of person and act that way, you will just never get there.

Act like a boss and you will become one

There are those who will not be happy with your transition. In fact, some would say that you are becoming “fake”. But I would rather be a “fake” business executive than a “real” janitor.

Your life is your choice. You are free to live anyhow you choose to. But don’t expect anybody to trust a “real” janitor with an important business responsibility.

Life is not about what you want, it is about what you take.