My Boss

I have been working for more seven years now. One thing that always motivates me most to do well in my job is the people I work with --the greatest influence, I can say, is always my direct superior. Though others add most of the spice in my social life at work, it's my impression towards my boss who would always give everybody the hint about my mood for the rest of the day... In these seven long years, I've worked for around ten bosses -either as my direct superior or as the team's "big boss". I can actually rank them from best to worst. I can even do some personality sketch of each of them in another blog. Well, let me just tell you about my current boss this time.

I am directly reporting to a Project Manager as one of his Technical consultants. Physically, he looks young, "nice" and charming. I can't say he's vain but he always looks fresh and clean. A lot of us says his voice could move mountains -well, maybe that's an exaggeration. He can speak three different languages, can understand a couple more, knows several Malaysian and Chinese dialects, and would love to learn Tagalog so he can communicate better with his Pinoy colleagues in Singapore. Usually, we worked at a million mile distance from each other, but I won't even feel it matters. He always knows what he needs and what where he's heading. Overall, he is the kind of boss who is clever enough to decide on all sorts of things. He wants output no matter how his people works -the important thing is we are moving in the same direction. Everyone of us is open to explore our own tactics and get things done based on our level of expertise.

And do you know what I like most about him? He's not hesitant to express he knows less and never insists on things he barely knows about. He does not only listen. He also understands and makes you feel you have authority over what you're doing. In effect, you feel you should be responsible and liable for any decision that you make. You will just grow unexpectedly. No pressure, no stress. Just work and do what you can. He would always have something good to say, afterwards.

It may be necessary for me to share with you my experiences with my past superiors -for you to clearly see how I admire the type of management my boss consistently shows us, but I think it's just too unethical to compare. In this life, it's inevitable to come across people with different values and different strategies. I don't want to be too judgmental to say one is better than the other.

More often than not, the greatest fear at work is how to get along with bosses. The job is easy, but impressing superiors is the greatest challenge of all.