A member of the Creative Warehouse team uttered one of the finest comments a boss could hear last week.
Not that I was handsome, charming, or incredibly witty, although obviously I hear that from them every day…
(Ahem!)
No, he said:
- I like working for you because you're hands off and let me get on and do my thing.
The image accompanying this blog, for example, was one of his things, for a website for the University of Cambridge.
Not bad, huh?
But why then did I like that comment so much?
Because it told me a great deal about the company I’m fortunate to run.
To explain further, a basic question:
- Why do we employ anyone?
To do a job, of course, but more, surely.
Hopefully to do that job really well, in a way which impresses not just you, but anyone else you’re working with.
Most importantly, your clients, or partners as we call them at Creative Warehouse.
(Because we work with people we admire and like, and think of our projects as a partnership.)
So if you’ve employed someone in the expectation they’re going to do a great job…
Why would you stand over their shoulder, checking up on them all the time?
Or more likely in our current world, keep emailing, messaging and calling them?
Presumably only if you were so uncertain in your abilities to recruit that you kept doubting yourself, and feared the person would be doing something awful.
Which happens, sadly enough. Even in the most prestigious organisations.
I met some fantastic people in the BBC, really talented and impressive.
But it was also depressing how many were either medium to superbly hopeless at their job, slapdash, or simply idle.
They really did need continual monitoring, and even then would often find a way to mess up somehow.
How did they get into such a world-renowned organisation, and indeed stay there?
That is one of the mysteries of life.
Which, happily for my health and sanity, I’ve now left behind.
So then, back to the point of this blog and why I was so pleased at my colleague’s comment.
It told me three things:
First of all, that our recruitment strategy was sound.
We only employ what we believe to be the best people…
So if we’re content to leave them doing their thing, then they must be fulfilling our trust and expectations and producing great work for our partners.
Secondly, our principle that we give them the framework to go and be brilliant, which largely requires leaving them to it, is working.
Thirdly, and perhaps most happily my favourite insight…
Employ the right people, and it makes your life, as boss, so very much easier, more pleasant, and fulfilling.