---
title: "How Is a Boss Made?"
description: "Many private enterprises grow from small to large, but many more remain stagnant for a long time. One important reason is that the boss has never completed a role transformation. This is like species in nature: without evolution, they inevitably degenerate, and even the 'living fossils' that have remained unchanged for ten thousand years live a precarious existence."
author: "景素奇"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
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published: "2015-03-17"
language: "en"
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---

# How Is a Boss Made?

> Many private enterprises grow from small to large, but many more remain stagnant for a long time. One important reason is that the boss has never completed a role transformation. This is like species in nature: without evolution, they inevitably degenerate, and even the 'living fossils' that have remained unchanged for ten thousand years live a precarious existence.

Many private enterprises grow from small to large, but many more remain stagnant for a long time. One important reason is that the boss has never completed a role transformation. This is like species in nature: without evolution, they inevitably degenerate, and even the 'living fossils' that have remained unchanged for ten thousand years live a precarious existence.

Four Roles in Evolution

Traditionally, the boss is the owner of the enterprise, which gives the impression that everything in the enterprise belongs to the boss, and the boss represents everything. But from another perspective, the boss is just one of many roles in the enterprise organization that need to cooperate with each other, only that this role plays different functions at different times.

Animals in nature evolved from invertebrates to vertebrates, from cold-blooded to warm-blooded, through several stages. Similarly, as the enterprise develops, although the boss's position and duties remain unchanged, the role the boss plays in business operations must change. If we subdivide, throughout the entire process of the enterprise's birth, development, and growth, the boss should complete four transformations in the roles played in the enterprise. This is like vertebrates evolving from fish to amphibians, then to reptiles, and finally to mammals.

Stage One: The Soldier Role

During the entrepreneurial process, starting from scratch, the enterprise's purpose, philosophy, guidelines, policies, systems, team building, and other genetic, directional, and principled matters need to be personally set by the boss, and every detail, no matter how small, must be personally attended to and even handled by the boss. That is, in the startup stage, the boss plays almost all roles in the enterprise: an ordinary frontline worker, a coordinating manager, a decisive leader, and of course, a shareholder who counts every penny. If the boss doesn't work, the enterprise's 'gears' stop. So, at this time, being a hands-off boss is impossible. Many successful bosses recall this stage with deep emotion. Indeed, we only need to think of the difficulty of fish landing on land and becoming frogs 300 million years ago to understand.

Stage Two: The Supervisor Role

After the enterprise has its personnel basically in place and the basic framework set up, all business operations enter a normal track. At this time, the boss no longer needs to personally handle everything. The main job of the boss during this period is to supervise whether employees follow rules and regulations, whether new problems arise in operations, and once problems occur, immediately organize people to solve them. Although the boss can be a hands-off boss and not do specific work, he must stay on the front line, that is, personally manage the enterprise. After all, at this stage, the corporate culture is not fully built, the system has many imperfections, the employee team is not stable, and they cannot yet form the habit of consciously following business processes. If the boss does not personally supervise, it will affect the normal operation of the enterprise.

Stage Three: The Leader Role

The boss playing the leader role means achieving governance by non-interference. When the enterprise's operations have developed to a certain extent, not only have business operations been put on a normal track, but management work has also become increasingly routine and procedural. At this time, the boss should gradually withdraw from the management role and hand over daily supervision to various supervisory departments. Otherwise, first, the boss cannot supervise everything; second, doing the work of the supervisory departments will dampen their enthusiasm. So, is the boss idle at this time? No, because the company is growing, there is more decision-making work and external coordination work waiting to be done. At the same time, the boss focuses on building corporate culture and motivating employees, considering the macro development direction of the enterprise. Only in this way can the boss elevate the enterprise to a higher level and a higher stage.

Stage Four: The Shareholder Role

When the enterprise develops to a certain scale and becomes a public enterprise, the corporate culture has become very deep, and the enterprise's business activities are not only routine activities but also an important 'dragon head' in the industry and even society, where a single move can affect the whole. When employees have a sense of pride and satisfaction, the boss can withdraw from the leader role. Because the enterprise's operations are fully market-oriented and socialized, and a complete decision-making mechanism and execution mechanism have been formed, with mature corporate culture and distinctive brand and reputation, the enterprise's business decisions and daily management are handled by a high-level professional manager team. The boss only needs to collect dividends regularly.

If the boss cannot complete the above role transformations as the enterprise develops, it is wishful thinking for the enterprise to gradually grow and strengthen. Perhaps a versatile boss thinks he can play all roles well simultaneously, but as the enterprise grows, the boss not only exhausts himself but also exhausts the employees, ultimately making the enterprise unable to run, remaining at the level of a workshop or a mom-and-pop shop.

Role Transformation: Easier Said Than Done

Although the boss must complete role transformations during the enterprise's growth, in reality, many bosses fail to do so. The reasons are multifaceted:

1. The boss lacks awareness of role transformation. Such a boss always thinks the enterprise is his own, everything belongs to him, and he just needs to earn a living. This is the kind of boss without ambition.

2. The boss doesn't trust 'outsiders.' Since the boss thinks the enterprise is his own, others are just employees, 'outsiders,' and how can he trust 'outsiders'? So he always does things himself or closely watches others, guarding against all employees like thieves, always thinking someone is plotting to usurp his position, even sleeping with one eye open. With such a mentality, he must be present in every situation, or if not, he must have a confidant watch, or he feels uneasy. As the saying goes, 'As big as your heart is, as big as your career is.' Such a narrow-minded boss naturally cannot achieve great things.

3. The boss finds it hard to change old habits. In the early days of entrepreneurship, the boss may not have adapted to the reality of having to do everything himself, but through the struggles of the entrepreneurial process, he gradually formed the habit of 'self-reliance and abundant food and clothing.' However, once these habits are deeply ingrained, changing them is very difficult and painful. When the boss finally completes the transformation from soldier to manager, finally gets rid of the habit of doing everything himself, and enters the manager role, he develops the habit of watching everyone. It is also difficult to change the habit of watching people and things, and many bosses feel that power is slipping away, or even feel empty and bored. Of course, transforming from a leader to a pure shareholder who doesn't worry about anything is also hard at first, like a retired cadre.

4. Strengthening management is much harder than strengthening operations. It can be said that in the early stages of entrepreneurship, the enterprise mainly relies on operations to win. People work together based on fate and kinship, and whether there is management or weak management doesn't matter much. Without fixed rules, everyone shows their skills during the entrepreneurial process, becoming good at operations, but thinking little about how to manage. Once everyone gets used to such loose operations, using rules and regulations to constrain everyone will face considerable opposition. Although some organizational members recognize the need to strengthen management, once it constrains them, they feel uncomfortable. Moreover, everyone may be used to the boss's supervision, but once transferred to supervision by functional department personnel, they feel uncomfortable: 'You don't earn money all day, I support you, and you have so many demands. Who do you think you are? You're not worthy!' So they complain to the boss. The boss may also think that investing so much manpower, financial resources, and materials not only fails to produce positive results but also attracts opposition, which will affect operations, so he dares not support the management personnel.

5. The boss always thinks he is capable. Almost all successful entrepreneurial bosses share a common trait: confidence, even arrogance. So, whenever they see others handling things poorly or solving problems ineffectively, they do it themselves, doing the employees' work. Here, the boss has a wrong psychological expectation: expecting all employees to work and be as capable as himself, which is unrealistic. If all employees worked and were as capable as the boss, they would be bosses, not employees.

Roles Can Jump but Not Go Back

The soldier role is encountered by almost every boss during entrepreneurship. But after the startup is complete, if the boss lacks management ability and meets excellent managers who understand and trust each other, he can completely not manage and only take on the leader role. Similarly, after the enterprise passes the second stage, if conditions are met, the boss can also let managers take on the leader role, and he only acts as a shareholder.

But the reverse is absolutely not allowed. This is like how nature can have mutations, but it is impossible for lungs to turn back into swim bladders. After the enterprise startup is complete and the boss transforms into a manager, he must never go back to being a soldier; he can only move forward as a competent manager. Similarly, when the enterprise develops to the point where the boss needs to transform from a manager to a leader, he must not act as a manager again. At this time, if the boss is dissatisfied with the status quo, what he needs to do is patiently train and guide employees. Of course, if the boss is capable and competent to be a good leader, he doesn't necessarily have to retreat to a pure shareholder role, but this requires not only the ability to lead well but also abundant energy, good psychological resilience, and excellent thinking.

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