3 Reasons I Love Working For My Boss

I am terrified of leaving my current job. It’s not that I don’t think I’ll be able to find another; my resume is half-decent, and it can land me a job in several companies in my field. It’s that I don’t think I’ll be able to find another boss like my current one, Dennis. Not only does he bring out the best in me, but he also makes me excited to start each working day, which is something I have never experienced in any other place.
The rest of my co-workers share my feelings: They like and respect Dennis too much to leave their jobs. As a result, during a social outing, we all sat down and tried to figure out what was it about Dennis that made us so keen on staying on board with him. Eventually, we figured out that what distinguished Dennis from other leaders could be boiled down to three things: his character, his treatment of his employees, and his vision.

1. Dennis’s character:

Dennis is an extremely optimistic individual; no problem is insurmountable. For example, whenever anyone of us makes a mistake, rather than berate them, Dennis sits them down and starts thinking with them about possible solutions. Somewhere along the line, his optimism translates into faith in us, his employees, which makes it even more difficult when we fail him.

Another example of Dennis’s optimism is whenever a project comes along that other teams might find too difficult, he rolls up his sleeves and dives right in, with us hot on his heels. His can-do attitude has led to him leading, first and foremost, by example. He’s the first one in the office and usually the last one to leave. Moreover, he doesn’t make a big display about it; he works quietly, and he picks up any slack in our team without making any of us feel the lesser for it.

As a matter of fact, when it comes to accountability, Dennis always critiques his own work before he addresses any of us. We once asked him about this, and his reply was that a leader’s job was to ensure that everyone else did their jobs correctly and that any mistakes in the final product were solely his responsibility. Consequently, on the rare occasions that upper management has harsh words for our team; Dennis accepts the blame and chooses to speak with the singular pronoun “I” instead of the more plural “We”. Conversely, when praise is thrown our way, Dennis will always attribute our team’s success to the efforts of each employee within the team.

Finally, he has proven himself to be a man of his word time and again. Regardless of the size of the task, once Dennis says he’ll do something, we all consider it done. These characteristics have fostered in us a sense of respect for Dennis. Despite not being afraid of him in anyway- he has never threatened any of us-, we are all horrifies at the thought of disappointing him or not living up to his expectations. This is a big part of why we walk through those company doors in the morning.

2. Dennis’s treatment of us:

Dennis is extremely supportive, not just professionally but personally as well. An excellent case in point is when one of our team members had to deal with a personal matter and Dennis was more than fine with having that employee work from home for a month. Additionally, he supports us without meddling too much in our affairs hence giving us the room and space to do what we think is best. This sort of delegation is empowering to the utmost degree; you truly feel like a contributing individual as opposed to a cog in a machine.

However, our empowerment doesn’t stop at our own jobs. Dennis listens to us and has an open-door policy. Therefore, should any of us have any criticisms about the ongoing work processes or any suggestions to improve the entire team’s work flow, Dennis will listen to them and take them seriously.

This sort of empowerment is only useful when it is complemented by a judgment of the final results instead of the process, and Dennis knows this full well. He gives each and every one of us the freedom to do their job so long as we arrive at a satisfactory end result in a decent time frame.

Moreover, Dennis is not afraid to praise anyone who does a good job. In fact, he’s sort of turned it into an art: This one time, I handed in a deliverable that exceeded expectations, and the very next day I received a personal thank you note from Dennis plus an extra three days paid vacation. Dennis doesn’t just praise us; he has it in him to be generous to the utmost degree.

3. Dennis’s vision:

In everything that he does, Dennis always tries to answer two questions: What is it exactly that the job entails? Why is this job necessary?

In asking the what and the why, Dennis manages to appreciate the minutiae of the job while keeping the bigger picture in sight. As a result, he has, on several occasions, refused a job due to his disagreement with its purpose or his perspective that the job is pointless to begin with. Naturally, this has put him at odds with upper management, but upper management realizes his inherent value to the company, so they give him some leeway.

The more important aspect for us, the employees, is that Dennis shares with us his reasons and rationale. He is very open about why we are doing a particular job as well as what the end benefit of this job will be.

We all don’t necessarily agree with him all the time, but our faith in him along with our respect for his integrity compel us to follow him, no matter where. Having said that, I will be the first to admit that knowing the end purpose of your work makes all the difference between taking pleasure in said work and feeling like a tool for the man.

I don’t know how long I’ll be working for Dennis, and none of my teammates know either. Nevertheless, I hope one day, when I’m leading my own team, I’ll be half the leader Dennis was: I hope to always stay positive, even at the worst of times. I hope to inspire my employees and colleagues to work as hard as they can because they are genuinely passionate about the stuff we build. And I hope to always remember why I do what I do.