Impact of a Good Boss

After writing about the worst boss I’ve ever had, I figured I’d write about the best boss I’ve ever had to offer some balance.

I was lucky that I got to work with him for four years, and I can honestly say that they were the greatest four years of my career.

In all the time I worked for him, he always made me feel like we worked together, like I worked with him, rather than for him.

He was so confident in his own position, that he never felt the need to prove each and every day that he was the boss. We worked together as equals, it was just that if we had a difference of opinion that he would have the final say, and he never made a big deal about it.

He showed great respect; valued my opinion; asked and never demanded; he made me feel safe so that I was prepared to try new things; any criticism was always constructive and never personal; all of this allowed me to grow as a leader and take things to the next level.

What surprised me about him was that he was never able to do this with many others, most people saw him as arrogant and distant, but in reality, he was just shy and didn’t feel comfortable when dealing with large groups of people.

He never felt comfortable enough to let down his guard, and be vulnerable like he was with me and 2 others. If he could have done that he would not only have been the best boss that I ever had, he would have been an outstanding leader, rather than just a good leader.

Unfortunately, after 4 years, we lost that intimacy; he believed a few rumours about me wanting his job, felt that I was undermining him; but this was just the work of a few people who were jealous of the relationship that we had.

But once that trust was gone, it was impossible for us to continue to work together, and I had to look to leave.

In reality, I did want his job; but only if he was promoted, I loved working with him, it gave me the freedom to be the best that I could be, so why would I want to change that.

I always found it strange that he believed people he didn’t trust, and chose not to believe the person he did trust. I guess this was a self confidence issue.

Sadly, after having spent 4 years where we were spoke together at least an hour day, now I never speak with him, I would say in the last 4 years I have not spoken more than 1 hour in total to him.

I am sure we both regret it, but once the trust has gone it’s difficult to get it back.

But as they say, “it’s better to have loved and lost, than to have never loved at all”, and I am happy to have had the experience and pleasure of working with him, even though we no longer speak today.

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