Dan Sullivan, a consultant to entrepreneurs and financial analysts, once said that the purpose of employees is to build the confidence of the business owner.
When I first heard that, I thought it was one of the most arrogant things I’d ever heard! It took me about five to ten years to really figure out what he meant, and then I got it.
It’s about the way in which a successful business relies on a pyramid of trust.
If you’re an entrepreneur, you know that you can’t be generative and come up with ideas and feel confident selling if you can’t count on your people to deliver and to live their word. Without that, the whole business suffers.
But I think it goes beyond the entrepreneur – it also applies to managers. The manager can’t feel confident and feel like he or she can go to customers and move things along unless they know that the employees are going to do what they say they will do.
So building the confidence of your boss essentially means that you are completely transparent about what you have done, about anything that might be undone, and clear about how you are going to get the plan accomplished. There should be absolutely no surprises. Hit your numbers, hit your deadlines, and let him or her know any time something might be out of alignment.