Why being bossy is a good thing.

Sometimes people need to be told what to do!

Julie Kenny
4 min readJan 18, 2023

--

Photo by Batu Gezer on Unsplash

Sometime around grade one or two, the little boy who sat next to me in the classroom called me bossy. I was devastated and vowed to myself to get better. I would have been eight or nine at the time.

Over the next however many years, I tried not to be bossy. However, I often failed, and my inner bossiness would come out. If people weren't moving quickly enough, I would push them to move. If no one was taking charge, I would start organising. And yes, occasionally, I would still be called bossy.

I managed to avoid that description because I learned more about influencing people as I matured. I understood more about emotional intelligence. In this way, I was able to use my bossiness more softly.

However, when stressed out. I will be bossy in highly emotional events where time is unavailable.

As I reflect on this, I would tell myself something different.

Being bossy is fine. People often need to be told what to do, and my motivations are I want to help. I want to get stuff done.

That said. Any behaviour overused or used with little self-awareness can become a problem. Mariam Webster defines bossiness as someone who enjoys telling people what to do. I work as a…

--

--

Julie Kenny
Julie Kenny

Written by Julie Kenny

Writer | Executive Coach and Trainer | Triathlete | Mother | visit me at https://www.garnettrainingandconsultancy.com/

No responses yet