Being your own boss ain't always easy

This week I had my 3 month probation meeting with my Boss.

Those are words I didn't ever imagine typing into an article on Linkedin anytime soon after working for myself for countless years, and only even having to answer to myself.

Now don't get me wrong I have had line managers and bosses in the past, my portfolio career thus far has involved fulltime, part-time, and contracted roles, which all involve having someone you report to.

But for almost 30 years I have also managed myself...with varying degrees of success, I have decided on my KPI's, I've defined my work areas and focus, I have managed my annual leave, I have sett myself targets for improvement, and managed my training budget.

I must admit it is kind of refreshing NOT to have to do all of that right now....however there is still a level of Self Leadership that is hard wired into me, after doing it alone for so long.

Self leadership isn't something that many people think about on a daily basis, I mean how many of us wake up each morning, jump out of bed and think "How can I be the best version of myself today?" but having self awareness and even admitting to yourself that you are responsible for leading yourself through your day, your week, your month, your year...is a good start.

On Friday this week as part of our Freelancer Friday series at Broxbourne Enterprise Centres , I am leading a session for solo founders and solopreneurs who don't have a boss, the FREE training on Self Leadership will feature my "Leadership Archetype Tool" which I have used with thousands of solopreneurs over the years...which I refer to frequently in my own life.

It featured in my book Leading from the Back which I published in 2020 off the back of the global pandemic when so many were building communities online and having to learn new self management and self leadership skills, and I have delivered this to major corporations and companies over the years too.

Whether we work for ourselves or within a team, how we deal with things, how we juggle our work load, how we leverage our skillset, our personality type, our mental load...it all matters, and has a lasting effect on our outcomes, and on how we feel about our work.

Solopreneurs and sole founders though can be incredibly hard on themselves, they are quite often self starters, and ambitious in nature, so it is easy for them to overlook their accomplishments, and to be super critical of things which haven't worked out....and over time this can lead to burn out and sometimes even worse.

Yesterday I was on a Mental Health First Aider training course, and I was thinking about how easy it is for folks who work alone to not notice the signs of mental distress themselves, or to hide it from the rest of the world. It is easy when you work for yourself to ignore HR (when THEY themselves are the key resource in their organisation), to not take breaks, to work ridiculously long hours, to not take holidays for extended periods of time, to not seek help or even a second opinion on work challenges.

This is why community matters for Solopreneurs...whether in person, at events and in venues like ours at Hoddesdon and Chesthunt, but also in the online world too, through masterminds, and digital communities.

So if you are reading this as a one person band and you haven't given yourself an appraisal recently, or had a day off (for no reason) in a while...this is your sign, go do it...be the boss that you deserve.

If you are around on Friday and would like to come and hang out with others in the same boat, to think about you in a leadership role in your business, register here and come and spend the morning with me.

Julie Creffield is an innovation and ideation expert with almost 30 years of business under her belt. She started her career in the creative industries and has worked across a range of sectors as a consultant, trainer and business strategist. She ran a successful global fitness brand for over a decade, is the author of 14 books and is an experienced keynote speaker on the topics of social mobility, creativity and business growth.

She lives in Bishop Stortford, with her 11 year old daughter and Ginger cat Tom...and is currently supporting SME's at Broxbourne Enterprise Centres, for Oxford Innovation space the UK's largest provider of innovation space