Me representing our Spanish school at a fair in London
When I left London and and moved to Panama, my life changed drastically! I used to be just an employee in a large financial institution, a slave of the system, and when I left I had no plan in life whatsoever. The only thing I knew was that I needed a change.
To make a long story short, when I met my hubby and his business partner Julio, I was offered to translate the Spanish School's website into French and German for them to attract more European customers. That's how I got connected to the school at first. At that time, there was only one campus with less than 10 teachers (now there's 3 schools in the country!), and the online sales team consisted of one single person. One day this girl just up and quit her job, leaving the school pretty much without anyone in charge of future bookings. Since this emergency situation called for desperate measures, this position kind of fell into my lap. Nobody else at the school was bilingual and therefore qualified to take on the task, and so I agreed. While I thought I would just fill in temporarily until a new person was found, here we are, 10 years later!
Today our team consists of 6 people including myself, and I've inherited the title of "Head of Sales". I know it sounds fancy, but really it just means that the responsibility of my team falls on me if there's a fuckup =). Also, I need to have a slightly different signature for my emails, in case a client wants to speak to a person in charge.
It also means that it is my responsibility to hire new members for the team, train them and manage them. This was a total first for me, as I had always been the one being trained or hired.
It's not easy to be a good boss.
You have to find a balance between being cool and friendly, being nurturing and helpful, but also being firm when things don't go the way they're supposed to.
I noticed a few traits of my own personality.
I like teaching and explaining things.
I think I'm good at it, I am patient and I know how to explain complicated things to a person as if they were a 5 year old toddler. I probably learned this skill from my mother who was the total opposite. I remember her helping me with math problems and losing her patience if I didn't get it after 5 minutes, and I swore that I would never do that to anyone . Don't get me wrong, I love my mom and she has many qualities to make up for this one LOL.
I'm also pretty good at hiring the right persons.
I learned to follow my gut feeling, and I'm very good at reading people. whenever someone looked really good on paper but I had a slight doubt about their personality which I ignored, I've regretted ignoring it and the person ended up not staying with us for very long. My interviews can be as short as 10 - 15 minutes. I personally don't care much about the CV. Anyone can make up anything, and I don't have the patience or time to go through references. I bank on personality, and if I like the person and feel that he or she is up for the task, I just go with it. I haven't been wrong often thus far. It's a customer service position, so personality is very important, along with attention to detail and organizational skills. It's not rocket science...
I don't like telling people when their behavior is not acceptable.
We had this one girl who would consistently show up 5 to 10 minutes late. While all in all it's no biggie really, it really annoyed me because if you are only 5 minutes late, you might as well not be late at all. I considered it a lack of respect towards me and my time, and I hated having to say something that obvious to a grown person. Needless to say, this girl is not in our team any longer (she was one of those gut feelings I ignored), but I resented her for making me state the obvious to her.
I'm also not good at letting people go.
Not that I have to do this a lot, but the one time I had to fire a lady was not easy for me. It's like breaking up, it sucks when you have to do it, but it's like a bandage you have to rip off and get it over with. I liked that lady as a person, which made it even more difficult. I ended up telling her it's just not going to work out, and her response was Really? It's the first time I'm getting fired, to which I responded don't worry, it's also my first time firing someone.
We both ended up laughing and hugging, but it was a bit painful for me to do. I hope I don't have to let anyone go ever again, especially if I like them. I already told my partner Julio that I don't mind hiring and training, but that he would have to play bad cop if we need to cut a team member loose ..... I'm glad that he's OK with his role.
Managing people is not easy, although I think I'm doing OK.
I'm very understanding and patient, and don't mind being asked questions all day long. I'm comfortable taking on a role as a friend or older sister, but I know that my colleagues also respect me and wouldn't overstep any boundaries. They are not afraid to come to me when they have an issue, and I make sure that there is no awkward barrier between me as their superior and them as subordinates. I want them to see me like another colleague, I don't want to have any privileges or different treatment than them. My motto is to lead by example and treat people as I would want to be treated. I've had my fair share of horrible bosses, and I definitely don't want to be the kind of superior who is viewed as the enemy, or someone to be afraid of.
Am I perfect in managing my team? I'm sure I'm not, but I'm learning everyday.
I'm learning how to give constructive feedback while motivating my team, providing a fun work environment which they enjoy coming back to, and more importantly, I want to teach them to be good teachers to future new team members. I'm not doing so bad, and I enjoy my role, even when it means being on whatsapp call after I'm done working to answer more questions.