Stop job hunting, start boss hunting: the smartest career move you’re not making

When job hunting, many Financial Services professionals focus on sensible things, such as brand name, job title, remuneration, the role itself and perhaps the culture of an organisation that they’d want to join. Those criteria will shape their whole job search campaign. But, perhaps they’re missing a much-overlooked and potentially game-changing component: their future boss. After all, it may be no exaggeration to say that perhaps the biggest influence on the success of your career is the boss that you work for.

In this short blog, we’ll discuss why your future boss can have such a beneficial effect on your career and what you can do to increase the importance of this in your job search criteria.

The benefits of working for an outstanding boss

Plan | They will want to agree a plan for your career development, working on areas for strengthening and pushing forward on areas where you’re already doing well. That plan will not be just lip service, but will be actionable and achievable short goals, which will be regularly reviewed. They will be committed to your progression and success.

Stretch | Your boss will seek to stretch you, but not to the point of overwhelm and will put you into meetings and onto deals where you’re learning almost by osmosis.

Team | Your outstanding boss will be running a great team and will have selected a very strong bench. You’ll gain significantly from being in proximity to high performers, both by learning and also by living up to the expectations of your colleagues.

Culture | High-performing teams cannot achieve at high levels with a poor, divisive or toxic culture, so it’s axiomatic that if you find a great boss, you’ll also find a great team culture. You’re going to be happier, even more motivated, more productive and successful.

Ambassador and advocate | You need to ensure that you’re doing what you can to build your professional network and be effective at internal marketing to gain recognition and visibility. How great would it be if your boss is acting as your advocate as well? They’ll be speaking up for you in remuneration and promotion meetings. They are very happy to do this because they understand the concept of being a servant leader and because being seen as a developer of the firm’s talent ensures future leadership and increases retention. Win-win.

Tasking | An outstanding boss will carefully apply resources to tasks. They’ll avoid using the precious time and efforts of the team on box-ticking, or tasks and projects that just don’t move the business forward. You won’t be late in the office working on a report that no one will read, wondering, “What’s the point?”.

Coat tails | It’s quite common to see that when it’s time for a leader to move on, they’ll want to bring with them talented team members and leaders to help them with their new appointment. As the boss progresses, so might you.

Finding a great boss

With all of these very good reasons for putting a much higher emphasis on the leader who you’ll be working for, what are some actionable steps that you can take to enhance your job search?

Your boss sriteria | Perhaps using some of the ideas above, create your own list of “ideal” boss criteria. Make this a core part of your job search, and refer back to it regularly.

Target List | As you construct your list of potential employers, dig deeper and understand much more about the firm and the leadership than just the brand name.

Research and find | Identify teams that are doing well in your space. Identify leaders who are moving to a new role or firm — perhaps with a mandate to make improvements. Speak to those who have worked with individuals.

Build visibility | Connect with them on LinkedIn, be at the same conferences and events, get introduced.

Express your value | Great bosses are always looking for talent, so anticipate what you think they might want or need and be ready to articulate your abilities to offer solutions succinctly in a compelling manner.

This idea of selecting a future job more for the boss that you want to work for, than the brand name or even the role adds a completely new dynamic to your job search. If you’re able to achieve this, there’s no doubt about the possibilities to significantly enhance your career.

If you’d like to talk about this, job search or, more broadly, your career, get in touch. All my contact details are at the top of my LinkedIn Profile in the Contact Info section, or you can click on this link to book a free, no-strings-attached, call.