The Best Kind of Bosses
Happy Boss’s Day.
Point to ponder: “The best kind of people (Bosses, Mentors, and Friends) are those who come into your life, and make you see the sun where you once saw clouds. People who believe in you so much that you start to believe in you too. They are once in a lifetime type of people."
Story Line:
A few years ago a former work colleague from China visited our place with her teenage son who had just completed the summer program at Stanford. As we were shooting the breeze in the backyard, Harry- the young man asked if I could share some lessons learnt from my time in Industry.
I have been incredibly fortunate to have met many kind, caring and helpful people in my career (Work Colleagues, Bosses and their Bosses, Supplier and Customer Representatives). Every encounter resulted in either a new friendship and/or some good learning experience. I have shared many of these experiences in Friday Reflections over last 15 years. Today, on The Boss’s day, I would like to share the ones I told Harry (which were appropriate for his age and his immediate future) that I learnt from my Bosses and Mentors.
For every lesson below, I shared stories behind them with Harry. The Young Man seemed happy and, as the reward, recommended an Indian movie Dangal ) that was popular in China.
Here are the key lessons from the stories I shared with Harry.
Ask one more question Try one more time. I was admitted for four years Bachelor in EE degree program at USC. A year and half later, I had graduated with Masters’ degree in EE and got a job in emerging industry in tough economic times.
Being able to work with people was most important part of my success. Its’ people who make things happen not machines or algorithms.
Most important business relations are personal ones.
When you go to do one thing, come back with three. Complete the task you went for, develop new friendships and observe and learn from surroundings.
We get paid for solving real problems of our stakeholders (customers, investors and employees), not just reporting them or delivering tools.
Learn from the mistakes/experiences of others. You will have plenty of time to make your own. Find a Mentor.
A desk is a dangerous place to view the world.
The best part of learning is doing.
Never have an attitude: "It’s not my job, they don’t pay me for it." Capitalize on every opportunity to earn good will, learn new things and develop new contacts.
Treat your job as your own business. Someone has put trust in you for the job. Be frugal, efficient in resource utilization, treat every individual with respect, be solution driven and don’t let go an opportunity (evaluate and if you cannot, refer someone else who can- will demonstrate your commitment to help and establish goodwill).
Reflection:
On this auspicious day, I like to share the story about another great boss: Joe Zelayeta, a great human being I was fortunate to have as my Boss in the first company.
His management philosophy was learned from sports, which he dearly loved and played through college. He not only taught me valuable lessons about work but also more valuable things about life. He came to Immigration with me for my Green Card call and when the Immigration officer asked me to leave the country (due to company’s HR error) he contacted the state department through our corporate office to find solution. He also took care of my entire trip logistics and expenses to bring me back. Later that year when I went to Philippines to get married, he and his boss (John East) made sure that my air ticket was covered, salary was on, and when I checked out of the hotel, the bill was covered.
Years later, when I had called him and recounted my memories, and thanked him, this is what he said: "Good employees are hard to find. So I did everything possible to…
He is long retired but if he ever called me and asked me to work for him again you can guess what my answer is going to be: please read the full story in the link below....