If the last boss you worked for recruited you again, would you go work for them? - SmartBrief

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If the last boss you worked for recruited you again, would you go work for them?

Last week's SmartBrief on Leadership poll question: If the last boss you worked for recruited you again, would you go work for them?

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Leadership

If the last boss you worked for recruited you again, would you go work for them?

SmartBrief

SmartPulse — our weekly nonscientific reader poll in SmartBrief on Leadership — tracks feedback from over 250,000 business leaders. We run the poll question each week in our newsletter.

If the last boss you worked for recruited you again, would you go work for them?
  • No! There’s a reason I stopped working for them!: 42.1%
  • Absolutely! They were great. 29.1%
  • Maybe … if the role and money were right. 28%

Boomerang boss. Clearly, a huge portion of you would never go work for a nightmare boss again. There’s truth to the comment that people leave bosses, not jobs. I encourage leaders to look at this question from the opposite side of the equation: Which of these three categories would your former employees put you in? Would they avoid working for you again at all costs? Would they jump at the opportunity? Or would you have to dangle a big wad of cash in front of them to lure them back? If you’re not positive you’re in the “Absolutely!” category, ask yourself what you can be doing today to build that kind of relationship with your team. If you do, you might find they never leave in the first place.

Mike Figliuolo is managing director of thoughtLEADERS. Before launching his own company, he worked at McKinsey & Co., Capital One and Scotts Miracle-Gro. He is a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He’s the author of three leadership books: “One Piece of Paper,” “Lead Inside the Box” and “The Elegant Pitch.”