As The Boss, you’re required to make decisions and handle problems. That’s if you’re The Boss at work, at home, or in your other activities. Sometimes those decisions are tough and sometimes inconvenient. The key concept to remember when faced with these scenarios is OWNERSHIP.
Just last week when I sent out my monthly cards to my client and prospect list, I saw ownership in action. When I include more than a few things in my cards, the postage goes up. The clerk at the Vanleer post office told me I needed an additional 20 cent stamp to put the postage up to 91 cents. Since I had over 100 cards, it took some time. I put the cards into a white bin and gave it to the clerk. About 20 minutes later, I got a call on my business phone. The clerk said I was short about 20 cents on each envelope (I had misunderstood that she said I needed TWO 20 cent stamps per envelope). At first I was irritated and angry, but when I went back to place the additional postage, I asked how she found my business number since it wasn’t listed anywhere in that office. She told me that when she saw the shortage on the postage, she looked around on my post office box documents but didn’t see a number. So then she looked at the return address and saw it was from Boss Builders. She did a Google search and found my number.
That’s ownership. She could have just sent them and they would have returned to me a week later with a red stamp over the envelope which would have looked awful and delayed my mailing, but she took it upon herself to help. I really admired that!
Contrast that with a company I know. One of the professionals in this company, a woman, dresses inappropriately. Not intentionally, but she simply doesn’t know how to dress to see clients. The office manager, also a woman, whose job it is to take care of things like this, doesn’t address it but instead bitches to one of the other women in the office about the problem, hoping they will bring it to this person’s attention. I get that it’s uncomfortable and embarrassing, but it’s the job of The Boss (which she is) to take care of stuff like this. This is a pure LACK of ownership. There are potential problems in this professional environment and this Boss needs to protect the house!
So this week, think about what OWNERSHIP means to you. If you find yourself backing away from stressful, uncomfortable, or annoying situations, ask yourself why. If you’re going to be The Boss, taking OWNERSHIP is a key component for success.