Click Here to Get All Podcast Show Notes!
Have you ever wondered why so many bosses fail to inspire their teams? In this episode, Sharran dives into the controversial topic that no one wants to discuss—why most bosses suck.
He argues that many leaders, who love their titles and control, often lack the necessary skills to be effective bosses, which can damage team dynamics and productivity. Sharran also explains what good leadership is all about and how you can become the kind of boss people actually want to work for.
If you’re a leader, he offers actionable insights to help you improve, and if you’re working under a boss who isn’t quite up to par, you’ll find helpful advice on how to navigate that environment.
If you’re a boss or part of a team, listen to this episode and learn how to break away from the toxic “boss” mindset and become a true leader.
“Respect doesn’t come from your position in the org chart; it comes from watching someone lead by example.”
– Sharran Srivatsaa
Timestamps:
01:34 – Leaders who love the title “boss”
03:54 – Hypocrisy in leadership: “Unemployable” entrepreneurs
04:45 – Great leaders manage the work, not the people
05:54 – The harmful impact of org charts
07:40 – The danger of credit-hungry bosses
09:10 – Titles don’t matter: focus on value, not status
10:49 – How great leaders learn from experience
11:38 – Leaders who don’t respond but expect responsiveness
12:30 – Leadership is a reverse triangle
14:20 – Leadership is about loving the work, not the title
15:52 – Two reasons why Sharran would choose to work for someone else
Resources:
– The Next Billion by Sharran Srivatsaa
– Join the Future Proof Community
– Join the 10K Wisdom Private Partner Podcast, now available to you for free
– Join Sharran’s VIP Community
– ARC Multifamily Real Estate Investing
– Sharran’s Partnership Program
– Grab Sharran’s 4-Week MBA for Free
Connect with Sharran:
– X
– YouTube
Transcript:
[00:00:00] Hey, this is Sharran Srivatsaa. Welcome back to the Business School Podcast. And in this episode I’m gonna tell you about something controversial that no one wants to talk about often, and that is why most bosses. Suck. Especially the ones who refer to them in all seriousness and love their title and love, their position in the org chart and how awesome they are, and how it’s controlled they have, and how they have the, oh, that should roll up to me and they’re my direct report.
[00:00:21] Every time someone says they’re my direct report, I wanna punch somebody in the face. Sure. Your position, your value is not in the org chart. We are managing the work. It just so happens that a lot of people around us do the work, but there’s a reason why most bosses suck. So if you’re a leader, this may help you so you suck less.
[00:00:36] And ’cause I was on the same journey. And if you are working on a team, maybe you can find the right way to recognize how you can work with better bosses. This is, uh, why most bosses suck. And I break this all down for you step by step. Starting right now.
[00:00:55] One thing is for certain. Just because it’s tried and true doesn’t mean it’s working right now. So the big question is this, where can you learn what is working right now? The strategies, the tactics, the psychology, and the exact how to, how to grow your business, how to blow up your personal brand and supercharge your personal growth.
[00:01:17] That is the question. And this podcast will give you the answer. My name is Sharran Srivatsaa and Welcome to Business School.
[00:01:29] I am really sorry to tell you this, but most quote bosses suck. I, uh, it’s, if there’s a word that I hate, it is the word boss. And the reason is that. You will never do your best work under someone who has not done their best work. And most bosses suck. And the ones who aren’t actually seriously like to refer to themselves as the boss, they definitely sucks to.
[00:01:53] They’re like, I’m the boss. Like, they suck. They’re terrible. And the funny part is, it is not always their fault, but it, it end almost ends up being your problem. And I really continuously think about this, which is. You will never do your best work under someone who has not done theirs. By the way, I wrote this kind of as an article, as a memo, as a blog post for you at on my blog called My Next Billion.
[00:02:13] It’s The Substack. So you can go to my next billion.com and check it out if you’d like, but I wanna tell you why do. These bosses suck. And the way you should be thinking about this is if you are a leader, if you are quote a boss, if you have people working, I hate to say for you, but if you have people working with you that you have hired this whole working for you thing is a, is a, is a bunch of baloney because no one works for you.
[00:02:36] You who, who the hell are you? They can go work at somewhere else. They’re working for the company and you are end up being the company. So it’s not, they don’t work for you. The only. The only work for you is like a coach where you play for them because that is the, like without them no play, no coach, nothing but this whole work for you Think people just take way too seriously.
[00:02:55] And I wanna tell you about like the bigger reasons why I think most bosses suck. So if you are a quote leader, a manager, you have people that are working on your team, then this is probably something you should think about. Maybe you could make a few adjustments that you can become a better leader if you are working.
[00:03:11] On a team and you have a boss like this and just know that your boss sucks and it’s okay because it’s not their fault, but it is your problem and it’s okay. Right. So a good part of why I, I’m sharing this is. I use this in many ways to actually invest in companies. If I see a boss that likes to be a boss, I don’t want to be around a boss that likes to be a boss because their egos through the freaking roof, and I don’t want that.
[00:03:33] And it’s important for you to recognize that because people don’t quit companies, they quit people, they just, most people don’t leave the, the company, they just hate being with their manager, their supervisor, their quote boss, and the bosses are the ones that suck. And we’ve gotta find a way to either identify that very quickly, or if you are the boss, fix it.
[00:03:50] Because you’re losing people faster than you can imagine. So here’s big idea number one, which is, I’ve seen entrepreneurs say this and they say, oh, I could never work for anyone else. I can’t, you know, I’m unemployable. Well, you suck, bro. That’s the reason you’re unemployable it. It sounds bold, but it’s actually insanely hypocritical, meaning you expect someone else to do what they like, what you could never do yourself.
[00:04:12] That is just wrong, and that mindset is almost impossible. To have to become a great leader because your ego is so loud that you think that since you can hire somebody, you don’t have to do what they do. That’s really, there can’t be a bigger hypocrisy than that. So anytime I hear somebody says, oh, you know, I, I couldn’t work for anyone.
[00:04:30] That just means that you’re unwilling to work on your leadership, that you’re unwilling to do the work that you expect other people to do. So if you first off, don’t ever say that I couldn’t work for anyone. It’s not that it, that it is not the case at all. It just means that you’re just unwilling to work on your leadership and that’s like, I think you and I can do better.
[00:04:45] Here’s big num. Big reason number two, most bosses, especially newer ones, they love being the boss more than they’re doing the boss’s work, right? Bosses work. The more you know, here’s, here’s an example. Steve Jobs was a boss, right? Like he was the CEO of Apple and he had responsibility over Apple, but it’s not that.
[00:05:06] It’s not that Steve Jobs. Manage people who built the iPhone. You don’t manage the people, you manage the work. It just so happens the people are doing the work. So the job is to manage the building of the iPhone. The job is not to manage the people that are building of the iPhone, right? It just so happens that the people are there, so you have to kind of support them, empower them, do whatever it takes to inspire them to do the great work.
[00:05:28] But at the end of the day, if you as a leader. Cannot actually deliver the work, then it does not matter how many people you manage because you didn’t deliver the work. And that’s the most important thing, right? So I’ve seen managers do this where they’ll, they’ll just write an email saying, Hey, growth is down.
[00:05:43] What’s your plan? You know, Hey, sales is down. What’s your plan? Hey, the numbers are down. What’s your plan? Like that is terrible. That is like, that is not what a manager or a boss does. Like, that is a really, that’s really bad leadership. I wanna tell you this. Respect doesn’t come from your position in the org chart.
[00:05:57] You are a, if you’re a manager or a leader, I will tell you this again, if you’re a manager or a leader in any meeting, that is an all hands meeting. Don’t show the org chart because the only thing that matters in the org chart is this. People love seeing you, love seeing yourself on the top and everyone else.
[00:06:15] You’re making sure that everyone else realizes that they suck and they are way on the bottom. And imagine all the people that are on the, you like the one on the topmost box, but imagine all the people that are on the bottommost boxes. How do you think they feel? If you can do anything in life, don’t ever put an org chart on a slide ever again in your life, unless it’s at some HR meeting where you’re designing some stuff.
[00:06:36] Org charts are freaking terrible. Like they, there’s nothing more insulting. There’s nothing more uninspiring than an org chart. Don’t put an org chart up in front of anybody because especially. If you have all the people that are structured underneath, they’re going to feel so they know. They know that they’re not as important to as you, but you’re showing it to everyone else that they know that they’re not as important as you.
[00:06:55] So when there’s a hundred people in the room, the 30 people that are the last boxes on that page are feeling so bad that they’re not listening to anything else that you’re saying, and you’re feeling so good that you’re up on the top of the org chart. Do not ever put anything on the org. Org charts bad.
[00:07:06] Don’t ever use them. They’re terrible. Use ’em for planning purposes, but don’t ever put them up and only big ass ego people put org charts up. Sorry, like it’s a really, really big pet peeve of mine. I freaking hate it. And, and because respect does not come from your position in the org chart, it comes from watching someone lead by example.
[00:07:24] It comes from watching someone solve problems. It comes from watching someone roll up their sleeves and do the work. When things get messy, there is nothing. I will tell you right now, there is nothing more admirable than watching your leader, your manager, quote your boss, do the work because it makes you want to work harder.
[00:07:38] That’s what’s so awesome. Alright, here’s number three. The. A lot of these bosses, they want the credit, even if they won’t admit it. Right. They want to get, they want, they crave the credit because they didn’t get it some somewhere else. They’re not secure enough. They’re insecure bosses. They, it, it feeds their status.
[00:07:53] They want to be recognized on the Zoom calls. They want to say, oh yeah, Jimmy did such a great job with this. They want to be called out in press releases. They want to be, they want to be recognized for doing the work. They want to. If there was, if there was an award that was mentioned about. Them. They want to actually be recognized for that award, even for that one Second, they want to have the one second of recognition.
[00:08:11] They want to be given the accolade. Then they shout out from stages. Those bosses, if that’s you, get over it. You, no one cares. You. The people are doing this to make you feel more better about yourself when they don’t want to. There’s nothing wrong with that, by the way, until you learn there’s more to life than being, than, than feeling better about yourself.
[00:08:28] The problem is all of us. Are so, have so much, so much. All these managers and bosses, especially middle level managers, have so much status issue that they don’t realize there’s more to life than feeling better about yourself. And I’ll tell you this as a big reason. The best leaders I know I’ve seen are cared deeply.
[00:08:48] Deeply, are deeply insecure about taking any kind of credit. Like when they’re on an interview and someone says, how do you do this? You know, they, they stutter when they use the word I and they love to use the word me. Because we is greater than me. Right? That’s super, super important. Like Yoda didn’t need credit.
[00:09:04] That’s why he was the greatest Jedi of all time. There’s a reason for that. Here’s big idea number four. I hate it when bosses or like leaders put their titles on everything. Like, have you seen people that will put MBA behind their name? I have an MBA too. I got MBA with honors. I freaking kicked ass. No one cares about my MBA.
[00:09:21] In fact, in today’s world, in, in the next 20 years, we may not even have colleges and universities. No one cares about your MBA. You got your MBA to have a shift in your career, to to learn something, to show that you’re, you’re good at something to, to check the box on, on a, on a, on application, on recruiting, on can candidate profiling.
[00:09:35] That’s it. But. You don’t need to put CEO behind your name. You don’t need to put managing director behind your name. You don’t need to put general partner behind your name. You don’t need to put Presidente behind your name like now. Now, by the way, I get it right on social media. Your title might matter because people need to kind of know who you are and all that, so that, but putting your title in, everything on every document, on, you know, having your team refer to you, have putting it on sign, putting it on cart.
[00:09:57] Like stop enough. No one cares about your title. Like stop with the title already. The less you can worry about your title, the more the people will actually embrace you for who you are. And that’s what’s super important. And, and I’m telling you, I have an BA too. I have a good title and my title is only to showcase me for external people, not in my organism, external people, so they recognize that they’re talking to the right person who can make the right decisions.
[00:10:22] Most of the time, a title is only for the external parties outside your company, so they understand that they’re talking to the right person to make the right decision. If I’m talking to a, you know, if I wanna buy something and I’m talking to the director of purchasing at a company, that makes sense. Now I know that that’s the right person.
[00:10:37] Otherwise, your titles irrelevant. If I, if I’m talking to, if I wanna buy something and I get introduced to the ceo, I’m like, dude, I, I don’t wanna talk to you. I wanna talk to somebody else because I know the director of purchasing knows more than you. Right? Here’s the big idea. Number five is the number one reason why a lot of the bosses suck is because they’ve actually never worked for a great leader, and this one makes me super sad.
[00:10:58] It’s really hard. You can’t bleed well if you’ve never seen it done well. And, you know, I, I’ve seen and worked with, you know, the US Navy Seals. I had good partners as managers at Goldman Sachs. I have had bad partners in managers at Goldman Sachs. I have a, you know, my partner Peter Loie, for the last 20 years taught me so much about, you know, leadership.
[00:11:15] I built five companies with him. You can’t learn leadership from a book. You just can’t. You can read Leaders, eat Last Meet from Simon Sinek or whatever. It’s a good first step, but there are more steps and you have to feel what it’s to be led by somebody who you know that you will go to war with, go to fight for.
[00:11:35] That’s what’s super important. Here’s big idea, idea number six. I hate this by the way, is that they don’t respond, but they expect you to. They don’t, they won’t be responsive, but they expect you to be responsive. Meaning when you contact them. You are need to be ultra responsive whenever they ask for something.
[00:11:50] But when you ask them for something, they’re not responsive. They’re not supportive. It, it, they, they, they ask for reports, but they never acknowledge them. They ghost to you on the Slack channels. You send your weekly updates that you don’t know whether they read, read them or not, and. And then they’ll come in and be like, oh, we just need to focus.
[00:12:03] We just need to do this. So irritating. And we all chalk it up to their, sta their status, their, them being busy, all of that. But that’s not good leadership. And we know that leadership is super hard. Right? And, and a good reason why your team is probably underperforming is because you are modeling it. You are, you are modeling the underperforming behavior.
[00:12:18] If you feel like that, that your teams are insecure, it’s because you are insecure. If you feel like the teams are working on unimportant things, it’s because you’re showing them that it’s okay for them to work on unimportant things. How you model behavior is super important, right? And here’s big idea number seven is.
[00:12:32] They think that these leaders think that you work for them. I will tell you right now, leadership is a reverse triangle. It’s not the bottom to top. It’s the upward down. It is. Everything changes when you realize that they work for you. Everything you, you changes when you realize that your, your team works for you, like you work for your team.
[00:12:50] Sorry, everything you, you work for them. Your job is, Hey, my name is Sharran Srivatsaa. I serve as the president of acquisition.com, and all that it means is that I work for you. That is the job I work for you. The job of a leader is to unlock their people, is to push them harder, to find their zones of genius, to help them do their best work, to help them win, to help them realize their potential, to help them, uh, get, be challenged.
[00:13:12] Anything less than that is just not what a leader does because we, as leaders work for them. We hired them so that we can work for them to make their lives better. That is our job. What I’m seeing all of this is I had to learn kind of this the hard way, which is I’m like an okay, maybe less than mediocre employee, but I’m a good partner.
[00:13:29] I don’t care about the politics, I don’t care about reporting structures. I don’t care about chain of command. I, I know that this is not the Navy, and I’m not the Navy seal, but I, I, I was like. The, the bad leaders. I used to chase the titles. I thought being, you know, president, CEO, managing partner, the, you know, grand Puba was the point I thought that leadership meant being on top of the, the, the food chain.
[00:13:48] I thought getting credit, credit was the actual game. I thought that being the one that everybody looked up to was like the ultimate thing to shoot for. I was wrong, not just wrong. I was so freaking wrong. I just realized this after. Five exits after building, helping, helping build nobody but does this on their own.
[00:14:05] Helping build $2 billion companies after investing in right now over a hundred plus businesses. After having my health breakdown and rebuilding my health after doing it without trying to like compromise my family, being a father, being a decent father, being a decent husband, I’ve realized something really important, and I want you to listen to this.
[00:14:20] I’ve realized I never really wanted the quote top job. I just wanted the biggest version of the work that I loved. I’ll say it again. I never wanted the top job. I just wanted the biggest version of the work that I loved. Now, if the biggest version of the work that I loved was the top job, so be it. But I will take the bottom job anywhere if it is the biggest version of the work that I loved.
[00:14:42] And to do this, I wrote down all the things that I hated. I’ll tell you what I hate. I hate being around people who play status games. I hate red tape. I hate internal politics. I hate when someone else chooses what I should focus on. I hate being told what to do, especially by somebody less capable. I, I hate being told what to do in general, but I all, which, which I understand, I can work through that, but I hate being told what to do by someone less capable than me.
[00:15:07] I hate when people don’t take responsibility. I hate. People who have bad work ethic and who are lazy. I hate Scorekeeping. I hate transactional relationship. I hate being around people who are not, who are not kind. And I, I love people who hate to lose. I love people who hate to lose, meaning. I hate people who, I hate being around people who don’t hate to lose.
[00:15:28] And so I just, whenever look at an opportunity, I just want the opposite of all the things that I hate. ’cause if I, if I hate one of those things, I just hate what I’m doing. I didn’t never wanted the top job. I always wanted the biggest version of the job that I loved. What I’m trying to tell you is like for me in this case, maybe you too.
[00:15:43] I don’t have a problem reporting to somebody. I just am at the point in my life where I don’t need a job. Therefore, I have probably a little bit more leeway than most people do. So there’s only two reasons where I’d ever record work for someone or work with someone ever again. And number one is that I have immense respect for who they are and I want to learn from them.
[00:16:01] And number two, I care about them so much that I want to make them successful. This is exactly what, you know, my partner Peter Lowy did for me, he. Cared about me so much that all he cared about was making me successful. I, I feel the same way for my partners, Alex and Layla right now. I want, I care about them so much that I want them to be successful.
[00:16:21] I don’t care about me in this relationship, and that’s what’s what’s really, really cool, and I have immense respect for them. So when you can get both of those who have immense respect for the person that you’re with, and you care about them so much that you don’t care about getting credit, you just care about them being successful, then it’s a really good court partnership because that’s when you’re a good partner and not an employee.
[00:16:38] So I’m glad you, thank you for listening and letting me be on my soapbox, but I really hope this is something that no one talks about because it’s like a, you know, taboo topic to talk about, you know, bosses sake. But I hope, I’m pretty sure you’ve had to deal with some of these too. I’m pretty sure you’ve quit a, a job or a role or an opportunity because of the person involved, because court of the boss involved, but me.
[00:16:59] But I, I would wager that you’re listening to this and it somewhat resonates with you because you’re like, Hey man, you’re, you’re probably trying to become a better leader yourself. So here’s what I will tell you. If you are leading right now, you can always lead better. There’s no bigger, you know, leverage multiplier in your business and in your life than a team operating in their zone of genius.
[00:17:17] And number two, if you’re on a team, I would pick your environment very carefully. I would pick your quote leader very carefully. The right leader will give you an environment, will unlock a better version of you than you’ve ever, ever seen. So. That’s kind of what I wanted to share with you because I think there’s a lot of sucky bosses around, and if you’re a boss, don’t be one.
[00:17:34] And if you’re working for one, you know, maybe you find a different environment. Because, uh, how you prepare how you work is just shows how much you care. This is why both, most bosses suck. And I will tell you this, you’ll never do your best work under someone who is, has not done their best work. Hey, I hope this was interesting to you.
[00:17:51] If, if I, if I triggered you, I apologize. I’m learning to speak my mind and not be like super middle of the road, not be super like. You know politically correct because the more plain vanilla, all of that becomes, it’s unhelpful to people. And, and if you didn’t like this, I’m sorry, but if you like this, do me a favor, screenshot this and tag me.
[00:18:09] That way I can make more like this for you. So again, if you like this, please screenshot this right now and tag me. That way I can make more like this for you. Catch you on the next one.
[00:19:38] Hey, it’s Sharran, I have a cool gift for you. Since you like this podcast, I actually have an ultra super-secret private podcast that I make just for my partner companies and the CEOs and influencers that I advise. It’s called 10 K wisdom because I try to wrap 10, 000 worth of value in every single episode in just under 10 minutes.
[00:18:47] That’s why it’s called 10 K wisdom. It’s raw. It’s real. It’s got no intro or outro or anything like that. It’s just straight to the point and to the insights. Since you like this podcast, I think you will like that. So for the first time, I’m making it available to you. Just go to 10Kwisdom.com the number 10K wisdom.com and my team will activate it for you as my gift. Go to 10Kwisdom.com. I’ll see you there.