You’ve heard the horror stories of employees with terrible bosses, you’ve spent hours hoping you weren’t that boss and not knowing how to tell if you did something wrong. The truth is, it’s a lot more effective to focus on what you can do to make your employee’s lives better. So to help you do that, we created the Employee Diaries.

What They Are:

These are stories from Grow Disrupt employees, highlighting the things that Stephanie has done that made their lives easier as employees and helped them find ownership in their roles within the company.

This Week: Susannah Scheller, “What I learned from watching my boss.”

We hear it all the time with parents: children are watching what you do, not what you say. And the funny thing is, that applies to employees as well! Especially the younger ones. 

Why do I think that? Because I lived it…

When I started working in Grow Disrupt, I wasn’t the Technology Director. I wasn’t anything close to that. In fact, I could barely be considered a contractor. The first thing I ever did for Grow Disrupt was graphic design for social media. And that was it.

Over the years, the company has grown and changed as have I. But one of the things that I’ve noticed recently is just how much I’ve changed!

In the span of 4 years, I went from a naive young woman who didn’t quite understand why people even needed managers to the Technology Director of a successful business. One of the major contributors was the fact that I watched my boss. I’ve always admired Stephanie, and the better she became at managing people, the more I admired her.

In fact, her success caused me to start to purposefully adopt some of the productivity strategies and management tactics she utilizes.

In 2020, she started to notice how I was managing myself and even providing management support for other individuals who were working with us. That was when she realized that she would ultimately see me as the Technology Director of Grow Disrupt.

This year, I fully organized the tech department of the Grow Retreat and it went better than ever! Stephanie never had to think twice about the technology side of the event, because we had everything covered and planned down to a T.

But it all came from her example.

If I hadn’t seen how successful her self and others management was, I would never have adopted those tactics for myself. And because I followed in her footsteps, she enabled me to become the manager she needed me to be.

Bringing it to your business!

If you’re reading this thinking “I’d love it if my employees stepped up like that!” then don’t worry! You can help them do this and here’s how.

Stephanie wasn’t just transparent about her successes, she has always been transparent about the different tools (like time blocking and prioritizing methods) she utilizes to be successful. Because she was transparent about how she utilizes her tools, I was able to adapt them for myself. If you want your team to start to step up like that, find ways to have that level of transparency with them!

Give them the example they need in order to see how productive and kick-ass they can be, and eventually they’ll start to adopt it for themselves.

Transparency is the key!

So next time you’re trying to hide your workload or your productivity tip, don’t! Share it instead and see what they do with it.

About the Author:

Susannah Scheller is the Technology Director and Engagement Curator for Grow Disrupt, and was the first permanent hire made by Stephanie! She has spent countless hours studying the world of business under Stephanie, and has over 5 years of experience in content creation and Technology Execution. Having recently completed her Bachelor of Music, she has begun devoting her focus to the creation of content that helps to support small business owners’ company growth the world over.