One of the great things about having multiple jobs throughout your life, is that you are able to draw from a great deal of different experiences that will ultimately allow you to be much more successful. One of the best things to remember is how each of your previous bosses acted, what worked well, and what was horrible. This is important, because if you stay in a career long enough, you'll be the one in that management position making those decisions, so by learning from the past, you'll be able to better understand what you should and shouldn't do in the position that you hold.

For example, about 7 years ago, I found myself in my very first management position. I was just 18 years old, so I really had no practical experience managing people, so I didn't have anything to draw from. It was because of this, that I began to read a lot of books on the management and motivation of people. But I also had to attend numerous seminars, classes, and complete a lot of computer based training as well. But even with all of that, I found myself looking back at the other jobs that I had previously, trying to remember my old managers and how they operated. I remember looking back at my first manager at Arby's when I was just 14 years old. She was so scattered, always late, and didn't do the best job of keeping track of important things. As such, she was always stressed whenever corporate would schedule a visit and would spend entire days sometimes 20 or more hours at a time at the shop getting ready for an inspection. I also found that because of her inadequacies our schedules would always get mixed up, and she would schedule people for days they couldn't work, or change the schedule to fill holes, but never tell anyone about the changes. Over time we had an incredible turnover rate and corporate began to really wonder what was happening at our store. This of course put far more pressure on her. Because of this experience, I began to realize that you can't operate a business in this manner. Each time that I found myself wanting to put off something important until the next day, I would remember my old manager and would immediately take up the task in order to prevent the hassles that she had to deal with on a regular basis.

I also would draw from another manager that I had which helped me to get my management job in the first place. He was always on top of things, generally trying to setup for things days in advance. because of his motivation, he was promoted quickly over the years and was now several steps above me working at a different location, making a great deal more than he was making in his previous job. Because he didn't have a degree and he wasn't much older than I was, I really looked up to him and began to model myself around him in order to obtain the same type of success that he had. It was because of this modeling and shaping, that I was able to find myself quickly gaining positive attention in the company, which ultimately landed me a new job when a regular customer saw the massive changes that I had made in my area of the store.

Much like anything else, sometimes it is important to learn from the past, so you don't repeat the same mistakes that others have made before you. By learning from their inefficiences and using the qualities of those that are successful, you yourself can become much more successful than those that you learned from. You just have to make sure that you don't ever forget the good or the bad and that you teach yourself based upon what you have seen earlier in your career. By doing this, you truly ensure that you will be the most successful person that you can possibly be.

Learn more about this author, Clacky McSnackins.
Click here to send author comments or questions.

---

Add your voice

Know something about Careers: Learning from the mistakes of your previous bosses?
We want to hear your view. Write now!