Not Just An Entrepreneur, a Leader: How To Handle Becoming a Boss

If all goes well, there will come a time when it’s not just you, trying to build your company all on your own. In time, you’ll have the budget and need for a team of employees, however small that may be. But if you’ve so far been solely focused on working on your own, how will you handle suddenly being in charge of other workers? Below, we take a look seven ways you can make the transition run as smooth as possible.

Get Yourself Up To Speed
As an entrepreneur, you’ll have some specific skills that’ll enable you to excel in the business world. However, being a good business person doesn’t automatically make you a good leader, but that’s just what you need to be if you’re going to have employees working for you. Before hiring your workers, take some time to read up on how to be an effective leader. This is, of course, a pretty big topic; there are philosophies on this very subject dating back thousands of years! Focus on the leaders you admire and read up on what they have to say. There’s a lot of wisdom out there if you just look for it.

Let Employees Know Expectations
You might be clueless about being a boss, but your employees are just as clueless about being one of your workers! If you think it’ll help, let them know that you’ve never been a boss before and that it might take some time to get up to speed. Even if you don’t fully know the type of boss you’ll be, you will know the standards you’ve set for your company, and how you expect your employees to conduct themselves. If everyone knows this, you’ll be starting from a stable platform.

Getting Productive
Once you’ve hired your employees, you’ll quickly discover that, as well as boost your company; they also take up a lot of your time. There are laws, taxes, records, and other paperwork that need to be in order and organised. Instead of spending your working day handling the niggling details of employee paperwork, use an application like BrightHR; it’ll enable you to have a single place to record and manage your employee data. You’ll also need to prepare yourself for things like sick days, holidays, as well as the company policies surrounding these factors.

Employee Engagement
If you’ve not yet read up on what it takes to be a leader, then we have some news: being a boss is not the same as being a dictator. To get the most out of your workers, you need to have a relationship with them, and this means being open to feedback, giving feedback to employees, and performing management/employee reviews. This will help create an open, productive workplace where feedback isn’t seen as criticism, but as a way to improve the company and your workers.

Adding the Fun
Now, you’ll have been working hard on your business. If anything, fun will be the last thing on your mind. However, your employees, while wanting the business to succeed, will not have the same determination as you do, and will not be willing to work sixty hours a week as part of their job. Mix things up a bit by adding fun to your workplace. There are many benefits and no downsides to this approach. You’ll be creating a workforce that likes being in the office, know each other on a personal basis (not just as colleagues), and will be offering an incentive to stay working at your business.

Open to Learn
It is unrealistic to think that you won’t make any mistakes in your new role as employer. You will. But, as with most things in life, it’s not the errors that will define how you are as a boss; it’ll be how you respond to the mistakes that will set the standards for your leadership. If you feel like you’ve handled a situation poorly, be willing to hold your hands up and accept your mistake. Your employees will respect you all the more if you’re willing to admit your mistakes rather than pass on the blame or ignore them.

Growing the Team
You’ll eventually want to grow your team even further, but it’s important that you don’t add too many employees at any one time. Wait until you have a solid team working well, and then add one or two employees as and when it’s needed, so as not to disrupt the harmony of the office too much.

With these pieces of advice and a determination to succeed, you’ll be just as good a boss as you are an entrepreneur.