Following up on my article about being an inspiring boss, I stated that I would split it in different parts because of the different bosses I've had along the way, each leaving individual marks and mentoring, and each deserving to highlight them. That being said, the time has come to share with you another experience I could write about from a couple of years ago, circa 2015.
Dear Boss,
I'm not sorry I quit. I was exhausted, gave it all on the field and needed to open my mind to new challenges. Nevertheless, I want to get rid of the bullshit-meme-content that goes around the web saying that "people don't quit companies, they quit their bosses". This is not my case and here is why:
Before I came to your area, I talked with other colleagues at lunch about who were the top performers in the division and your name always came up. This was very inspirational and determined my objective: one day I will work with this guy. When the opportunity knocked on the door, I was as excited as pissing-my-pants-scared because I know the demanding level required to succeed with you.
The first lesson from being your employee was being accountable for your team, making sure things got done from other departments and paving the way for your team to succeed, witnessed while joining meetings and seeing people expecting your requests, demands and compromises. Talking about accountability, I also learned how to be accountable myself. I remember one of my first calls with an angry provider, alone, by myself, to solve the problem while you were in the next room... a big change from my previous boss who would have carried me over the pond holding hands, a.k.a joined the phone call and argue with me. I learned to swim and grow by jumping into the pool, hands-on because you believed in me that I could do it, and let me do it.
Another valuable lesson is to resolve conflicts with the phone. Go beyond chat and endless chains of emails, just pickup the phone, dial to the highest person involved and close the problem in 2 minutes. If disagreements arouse between another group of colleagues, specially during brainstorming, the best way to solve them was not to impose an idea, but to get people together, let them discuss so they arrive to their very own conclusions, which you already knew and just waited patiently for them.
Many times I went to let you know me or my team were burned, overloaded or knee-deep in trouble, or that things "just sucked" and many times you taught me to watch the language in my mind, to keep it positive thinking, the mind plays you tricks. If things are though don't show it, don't let it soak through your brain, show a positive image to yourself, your team and other departments.
A key takeaway is how often we had feedback. Constantly you were aware of the environment, actions, reactions and results from meetings, presentations and committee and constantly gave and requested feedback, in an effort to improve permanently.
I learned the value of keywords during presentations. Is it possible to condense 15 slides into 1? Yes, it was possible using keywords, being tight and to the point, having seniority to present a topic at executive level. When presenting you must have precision in your data, don't say any sort-of, kind-of, or I think more or less, just say the exact number, and learn it. Most importantly, for critical-decision presentations, get buy-in before from your colleagues, so the presentation becomes just a formality for something already sold.
Finally, the freedom I learned to work away from my desk was liberating. All the visits we performed together across the country were invaluable lessons on time management, scheduling, talking to new people, asking the right questions. It didn't matter which city we were, what time we got to the office, what time we left, if we worked on weekends or disappeared to enjoy with the family, the focus were results at the end of the day and for that I'm forever grateful, because I can look back and say I changed as a person and as a professional because I worked for you.
After reading this letter a couple of months later, and now having a team under my responsibility, I have realized a couple of things:
1) How much can a person influence and exploit the potential of your employees, if done right.
2) A leader always has to be inspirational, so that others follow you and are open to your feedback and teachings.
3) Most of the times, a tough boss will shape you for the rest of your life, so it's up to you to positively take this opportunity and turn him into your mentor and friend. It is possible, hey, I did it.
4) Finally, ask yourself this: How are you inspiring your team? If you leave today, will they have something to write to you?
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