Managing

The focus on job hunting and considering employment options (and hopes) has has me thinking a bit about my fairly fortunate past career. I've had some lulus when it comes to management, but I've also been blessed with some pretty great bosses in my day. The one who comes to mind most often, though, isn't the super generous, collegial gent from my position-before-last, or the one from my last insurance gig (both of whom I was so deeply grateful for), nor even the one from my most recent position, who said such kind things after the layoff. The one who sticks with me most is the woman from the job I had before I began to hit a more executive level. I actually worked, during my tenure at job-before-last, with another woman who had been under this woman's tutelage overlapping my own time there; we both remembered her with admiration and a good deal of respect.

The reason this woman, this manager, sticks out isn't completely unique. Her distinguishing trait was the ability to identify what people were good at doing, wanted to be doing, and liked doing - and finding ways to get them to do these things more than others. With me, she saw my interest in writing, and she had me write holiday poems for laughs for our group. Then she gave me the job of creating a newsletter for our firm ... editing an estate planning book (never published) by the firm's lawyer ... sometimes even working on or looking over marketing pieces and PR. She saw some capacity for tech, and made me an informal second banana to our IT guy when he or the interns we might not always have in-house weren't available. She recognized my ability to provide customer service, and put me in charge of the clients who were between formally assigned agents for whatever reason.

This woman exploited me more than any other manager I have ever seen - and I mean that in the most positive sense. She used my talents for the benefit of our firm, AND she also pushed me to developing them. I came in a typing machine with some sense of how to deal with people, and I left that place ready to provide a lot more value. What she did was the best possible thing for herself, for me, and for our employers. Simple as can be. But she was genuinely amazing.

I've had other managers, of course, who could plainly identify my strengths and play to them. I've learned, too, to express my interests, to leverage my talents, to put those in the fore even before I take on a new position. I'm no more a dummy than she was, back when I was so much less professionally mature.

Frankly, I'm grateful for her. She helped me to learn discipline, and she also demonstrated a savvy set of abilities I've rarely seen quite matched. I've been lucky to work for some of the best and biggest in financial services. But nobody has ever been BETTER. And nobody but nobody has ever given me so much.

I had a teacher, in first grade, who cultivated my tendency to daydream and live in my own private world. It was good for my heart, but it made for a hard row to hoe when it came to the next twelve (well, sixteen) years of schooling. Gaining authority over myself was a hard job, and took me a very, very long time.

This woman was key in this phase of my professional development, and, in a way, to some maturity beyond the office. She gave me a gift with that - and at a time in my life when, personally, I was craving structure, discipline, and growth. I owe a debt to her.

Thank you, C******. You are as good as it gets, and people know it. J*** and I both did.