I've had several good managers in my time, and two horrible ones. But the best I ever had, I like because he did the following:
- managed down, not up. Constantly looked out for us and got us what we needed, even though it was an uphill battle with corporate and the client. He complained about this frequently, but never made it seem like we owed him anything.
- handled a lot of the shit work, administrative, spreadsheet updating kind of stuff himself
- always hustled, but never held it against us if we didn't seem to hustle as hard as he did (in fact, he worked way harder than I did and I felt a little guilty)
- perhaps most importantly, put up with me. I was much less mature and had a lot of sharp edges at the time. He constantly coached me and also tried to cover for me. I am hoping he saw something in me at the time and that he'd be proud of me if he saw what I was doing now (though I'm sure he'd still have some coaching advice as well)
He is by far the best boss I've ever had and I will never forget him. Thanks, Jeff.
- managed down, not up. Constantly looked out for us and got us what we needed, even though it was an uphill battle with corporate and the client. He complained about this frequently, but never made it seem like we owed him anything.
- handled a lot of the shit work, administrative, spreadsheet updating kind of stuff himself
- always hustled, but never held it against us if we didn't seem to hustle as hard as he did (in fact, he worked way harder than I did and I felt a little guilty)
- perhaps most importantly, put up with me. I was much less mature and had a lot of sharp edges at the time. He constantly coached me and also tried to cover for me. I am hoping he saw something in me at the time and that he'd be proud of me if he saw what I was doing now (though I'm sure he'd still have some coaching advice as well)
He is by far the best boss I've ever had and I will never forget him. Thanks, Jeff.