“Ask your boss”

As discussed in the last lesson, having a very close overall relationship with your supervisor is critical, but instead of it being about telling them your problems, this lesson is about asking for their advice.

The most common problem that occurs with this issue is that people from larger, non-entrepreneurial organizations get into the mentality that if a particular decision is within their authority level (is within their remit), then they don’t need to speak to their boss about it.

Many of them also see it a little as a power thing and get hung up on the level of expenditure that they are allowed to authorize, whether it’s £25,000, £100,000, or £500,000. The situations I’m referring to could be about setting credit limits, purchasing telematics boxes, hiring staff, choosing a hotel for an off-site meeting, onboarding a new installation partner, buying a telecoms customer out of their existing contract, buying new vans for stock, signing a new fuel supply contract, choosing shower fittings for a new office, or any one of similar small decisions that go on in the business every single day.

What you need to understand is that your boss might have some other knowledge to add to the decision-making process and that, far from bothering them, you are taking advantage of tapping into their experience. It’s very easy to do and takes no time to either speak to them face-to-face if they are close by or simply copy them into an email.

This is about using common sense and raising up decisions through the layers quickly to get second and third opinions. Even in a big company with thousands of employees, you will be surprised by just how many of these smaller decisions a single senior person can touch on and have input on if they wish. This is all about learning and passing on experiences as well as instilling good communication as a central company philosophy.

When one of my guys comes to me for advice, I see it as a real sign of maturity and someone who is keen to keep learning by understanding what I would do in their set of circumstances. These are exactly the sort of people the company needs.

One final thing to try to help you remember Lesson 11 is that we have also used the phrase "as much use as a chocolate teapot" for many different things over the years, and a manager who doesn’t understand the importance of asking your boss definitely falls into this category!