Episode Details

In this episode we talk about :

• why your boss is your #1 customer • What happens when they're not • How to make them your biggest ambassador

www.chiefmaker.com.au/71 This starts with a simple question: Who is your customer? When I asked one of my clients this question, he said, "My team. My job is to make their jobs as easy as possible." "Do they approve your salary and bonuses?" I asked. "Well, no", he said, hesitating. "My boss approves that." "Who is your true customer then?" The revelation stopped him in his tracks because it runs counter to contemporary management fads to think of your boss as your true customer. We've been taught that we should think of our team members as our customers, but this is looking at it the wrong way around. Your team is the vendor. Your boss is your customer. Turning your thinking around like this will help you see who you need to serve better (i.e., your boss) and who you can expect more from (i.e., your vendors). When we look at our team as though they were our customers (rather than service providers to both you and the company), we accept poor performance from them far too readily. Of course, this doesn't mean you should stop developing them and providing them with a high-performance work environment, but by serving them instead of your boss as your customers, you are doing yourself (and your career) a disservice. Start viewing your boss as your customer and you'll do everything you can to make sure they are a raving fan. This is what will move you to the top of the list when you are being considered for promotion. In a career sense, it pays to start approaching your boss as though they were your customer for three main reasons:

• You'll grow with them. In other words, if they're successful in their role and future roles, not only are they going demand more of you, but when they get a promotion they're going to lift you up the corporate ladder with them. • The better you make your boss look, the more likely it is that those in the position to promote you will want to see you in positions that can make them look good. • A happy boss can make the daily grind feel downright pleasant. • If you're effectively serving your boss and effectively serving the company in perfect alignment

Let's be honest, if your customer isn't happy, how much of an impact are you going to have? If your customer isn't happy, how happy can you possibly be? One my clients, Rob, was having credibility issues with his boss, the COO. "She is difficult to connect with", he told me one day. "I never know where I stand. I just don't think she sees the value in me." The deeper truth that Rob was missing was that he was solving the wrong problems. He was focused on his problems which he thought the COO should be focusing on rather than listening and gaining deeper understanding of what the COO felt the biggest problems in the business were. The moment he started to look at the COO as though she were his customer, his whole approach to messaging changed. He wrote a detailed profile on the COO. What were her real problems? What was keeping her up at night? What were the CEO, shareholders and the market demanding of her? Rob worked out that the three biggest pain points for the COO were safety, unstable operations, and difficulty in keeping other team members on track. The last of these was a major issue. Team members were constantly drifting off into non-mission critical activities and not working together. Rob immediately started framing his messages around solving these problems. Whereas before he would say, "We're implementing a new governance system for our projects to ensure they are kept to scope, time and budget and our new operational standards are being rolled out",