Cover the Boss’ Back

Who has your back? As a business owner, doing everything is difficult. The ability to rely on employees is critical. In this post, I am reflecting on how some employees are better than others at thinking of the boss’ or company’s best interest. Those who don’t think about the boss, or the company, are a detriment to the organization. As employers, Melissa and I have to depend on the employees not only to do their jobs, but to help us do ours. They need to be our eyes and ears because part of our job keeps us on the road, and focusing on many things. Simple examples of this are keeping up with the mail or messages. Obviously, I’m talking about employees who have earned our trust, but having someone keep up with the mail, alerting us to new cases (which one client often initiated by sending us letters), billing due dates or telephone messages. We’ve had many other things that employees have been in the position to “field” like a baseball player catching a fly ball. On research days, there are many, many factors at play. Relaying information about mock jurors, questions from clients, or issues with a facility (meals, the room temperature, audio/visual equipment) is essential. Sharing the information with us, as the bosses, is important. Being kept in the dark is not what we need. Most employees who have made it past their probationary period seem to have that ability. Those who don’t see this as a part of their job need to work elsewhere. And, those who have intentionally sabotaged the working relationship are beyond redemption.

I need help.  I need a lot of help.  In my job as a trial/jury consultant, it is impossible for me to function independently, without assistance from numerous other people.  Although I have considerable expertise, and years of experience, performing my primary job duties, I rely on David, and our employees, to assist me with many tasks.  Writing a survey for a client’s project is an example. In order for me to write a survey for the mock jurors to complete as part of a client’s research program, someone from Magnus (other than me) must first request case documents from the client.  Someone then downloads the documents from our portal into a secure place where I read them on my iPad.  After reading the client’s documents, I write the survey, using a template to inform another employee of how to place it into the proper format.  This employee then formats the survey, sends it to me for approval, after which it is edited, as necessary.  Upon completion of these tasks, another employee prepares the surveys for completion by the mock jurors.  This example pertains to one of many aspects of my work.  We, at Magnus, use a team approach for almost all our work.  In order to function as the team captain, I must be confident that everyone who works in a support role truly has my, and our clients’, best interests in mind while performing every task to which they are assigned.  Without a commitment to excellence on the part of all team members, it would not be possible to provide valuable assistance to our clients.

 

Comments are closed.

Powered by WordPress. Designed by WooThemes