Jamie Flinchbaugh is the founder of JFlinch and author of People Solve Problems: The Power of Every Person, Every Day, Every Problem.
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So many action-initiating conversations lead in with some version of “the boss said,” as if that’s a good reason to complete any task. Of course, it is one reason, but it’s a reason filled with waste and error.
There are three reasons that relying on this reason alone is flawed. First, it does not lead to the most effective outcomes. Second, it does not lead to personal career success. And third, it reduces job satisfaction.
Effectiveness
No matter how many tasks you complete at your boss’s prodding, you still must do a good job at those tasks. That’s your responsibility, your duty in exchange for a paycheck (along with the corresponding self-respect of doing your best).
Doing your best requires more than complying. Our best effort and outcomes come from knowing why a task is important, or why it must be completed in a certain way.
Here’s how easily the lack of knowing why can lead to bad outcomes: Imagine your spouse asks you to pick up some tomatoes from the store on your way home. There are many ways to complete this task. The cherry tomatoes look ripe and fresh, and the canned tomatoes are on sale. However, what they want is to slice them for hamburgers. If you brought home the wrong kind, you've ruined everything—well, maybe not everything, but at least dinner.
In Training Within Industry (TWI), which is an effective tool for worker training, a lot of emphasis is placed on understanding the "why" behind critical tasks. The why allows us to complete tasks with the proper intention, as well as forms the foundation of improvement because we understand the true goals of the task or step. Without the why, and instead relying only on “the boss said,” our effectiveness suffers, as does the organization that relies on us.
Career Success
How long are your boss’s coattails? Prioritizing satisfying your immediate manager above all else will only help your career as long as they get promoted and bring you with them. Statistically speaking, that is far less likely than getting promoted to new and different bosses.
This means that sometimes we have to prioritize the long-term over the short-term. Sure, doing what your boss asks will keep things easy in the short term. There are no difficult conversations or negative feedback cycles. But in the long run, the best outcome is that you’re simply someone who can follow directions, the proverbial “yes-man.” Is that the factor that leads to promotion? Not often. The worst-case scenario is that you’ve hitched your wagon to the wrong person, and as soon as they are gone, so are you. No one wants to take you on or promote you because you either can’t think for yourself or are simply the “right hand” for someone else.
I’m not proposing that you ignore your boss or openly defy them. But if you care about your reputation as an individual and your long-term fortunes, you must take responsibility for your own actions and not hide behind “my boss said.”
Job Satisfaction
Personally, I don't believe every job has to make us happy or be fun. Something that is fulfilling may not be either. However, when we suffer from job dissatisfaction, the consequences are everywhere. It can affect our sleep, our health, our mood, our focus, our energy and more.
Will you be able to sleep well at night knowing that you’re doing the wrong thing only because the boss said you should?
But those are the negatives. On the flip side, it's the absence of a huge positive. You learn way more in your job by understanding the decisions. Why do we do this? Why do we do it in this way? What’s behind it? What are the consequences? Exploring these questions leads us to the insights that make us more effective and more valuable. I propose that the most important currency in any job isn’t income or power; it is learning, as this pays you back over and over into the future.
What’s Next?
Again, I’m not proposing that you act with insubordination or disagree with your boss with some defiant stand-on-the-table speech like you might see in the movies. I’m proposing that you ask questions, push back and challenge; take ownership of your work; and make a different decision when you believe it is right. You owe it to yourself. You owe it to your organization. And yes, you even owe it to your boss, even when it’s uncomfortable.
Forbes Coaches Council is an invitation-only community for leading business and career coaches. Do I qualify?
