We always hear this saying : selecting your next career is about choosing your boss ( or your leader ), not a position. But how is that so?

Imagine walking into a room for interview, what are you accessing in your mind usually? The conversation with self often goes like this :

1. What should be my strength and weaknesses?
2. What values or contribution should I showcase to them to show my worth?
3. What should I negotiate in my salary, my job descriptions based on my experience and my expertise ?

The list goes on with a lot of questions regarding the what YOU can do, what is it about YOU, but very rarely, you will be taking the chance to also understand WHO is the person that is going to lead you. According to Melissa Llarena of Career Outcomes Matter reports, particularly for Generation X employees, she mentioned the biggest reason for employees that quit is that they no longer trust corporations. Nearly 40 percent of men and 25 percent of women want to become their own boss, she says (54% of Millenials, 46% of GenY, 35% of Gen X-ers and 21% of Baby Boomers, by age). Why is that so? The reasons can be very simple :

A leader unlocks your potential

A leader that cares about your development, is an investment in shaping your long term career path than merely accomplishing the short term wins ( bonuses, hitting targets etc ).

Your boss impacts your daily mental health more than you could imagine

Communications, clear instructions at work, respecting work boundaries are very basic concepts that are hardly practised in workforce, unfortunately.

A leader teaches, and nurtures

They bother to constructively give you feedback with the intention to teach and empower. You see yourself growing and know how to move forward clearly, than trying to merely fit into their personality.

But, how do I know what to access or how do I choose my boss? Instead of finding out who suits you the most, the concept works similarly in finding a partner in your life, it starts with self awareness. Surprisingly, having worked with many young adults and teams, we have witnessed many that find it hard to tell when we ask them : what do you think you need, and do not need from your team leader?

From our own experiences, your leader impacts both your Happiness and Performance at work. If you have no clue to begin with, you can start by looking into these elements.

You can start by accessing at least these four areas:

Personality Fit – Your and your leader’s views on how you match each other’s preferred working styles
Leadership Fit – Your view on how your leader’s leadership styles suit you
Impact Fit – Your leader’s view on how the impact you create at work
Skills Fit – Your leader’s view on the skills you possess to create impact

You can definitely take an individual survey from us to know more about what suits you better. However, to put it into a more practical act, remember next time, before leaving your interview room and if they ask you if you have any questions, bring up the conversatins to try to understand the leader that is going to lead you.

As a candidate who knows clearly what you want, what is the pros and cons of working with you, the clarity will be an amazing gift to the recruiters or the interviewers, and that would probably impress them way more than what you put in your CV.