RE: The Earth on sale! Wild West re-released. The story of a failed business idea that was actually quite charming.
thank you, @mazzle, you're always inspiring to think deeper into a topic.
What you've said led me to the question:
What if nobody is a boss, neither an employee?
I compare it with being a king of an empire. As a king you cannot and will not fulfill the desires, needs and demands of the whole kingdom resp. the involved subordinates. If the king has headaches (thanx for this picture!:) too many care as the people only see him in his role as a leader. A king having headaches gives the impression that the empire is in danger. So people don't like that. They want to have the assurance that - no matter what - their space remains safe.
But if we turn the view and share the responsibilities and everyone becomes an entrepreneur (king): The whole picture rearranges itself. Leading an own "empire" means that we go in with what we are capable of, where our talents lie. Cooperation is a must and dealing with one another, too. Nobody can have a business without other busy ones. Everyone is being held accountable; because there is no boss, nor servant.
The whole thing with being an employee actually led to the impression of limited responsibility. Same with being a boss; reduced to functioning as one who always knows best what to do. Which is not the case.
I made the experience to having found other entrepreneurs in my professional life and I worked with them for a certain amount of time and then walked on. Not out of disappointment but because I felt it was time to move or I felt not satisfied any longer or other changes in my life made it necessary (like becoming a mom). One can choose to lead the pack for a while and then decide to let go of it for role changing had not taken place - besides many other unknown factors.
In fact, I believe that "leading" is often a temporarily chosen role. There are occasions I lack leading qualities for the simple fact that I do not have the knowledge and competence in a certain field and I must rely on a person who knows better. This can happen during a day several times. In our highly specialized world this flexibility is - I guess - required.
I hope, that makes sense to you.
P.S. yes, the times were intensive, you bet:-)
Your comment does make sense. I also feel that sometimes I just lack the ability to lead well. I actually deliberately hire people who know more about certain things than I do, for the simple fact that I don't want to be an expert in their field.
It can make leading these people challenging though since they know they are experts, and I have to direct them to do things in a certain way, since I know what the customers needs are better than they do. It can be an interesting environment to work in, which is why I sometimes have a bad day.
I agree that being a leader can, and should, be a temporary thing though. Leaders need to move out of the way for fresh blood to come in. If I stay in this role for too long, I feel that the business won't progress with the times as effectively as it should.
Oh and I did the 5 facts challenge, thanks for the nomination. It was actually a lot of run to write.