A Comparison of Bosses

What a difference. Today my boss came to me with a printout of an article of mine that’s appearing Sunday — a look at HDTV. He tells me how much he likes it, and even points to a couple of specifics.

“But…” I prompted, assuming there was something wrong.

“Huh?” he said. “No buts. It’s good. It’s very good.”

What an incredible difference. At the American Chemical Society, my boss — one Anne O’Melia — was an absolute nightmare (and I don’t mind saying so). There was rarely a compliment to be had; there was always a “but.”

(My wife, upon hearing what happened today, said without prompting, “Wow, what a difference. So she noticed it too.)

What was tragically funny is that Anne would send me and other “new” managers — I had about nine years of experience, mind you — to these seminars on how to be a better manager. Things like complimenting your employees’ work, not worrying about the little stuff. Real basic-manager things. But she never did any of this herself, and believe me we all talked about it.

(Actually that’s not entirely true. She did tell me once, early on, that I was a good writer. But that was it. After that, it was one bad thing after another, and all the people who worked for her commented on it.)

I say this for anyone who’s managing, supervising, or in any way the boss of someone else. This stuff really is important. People will say nasty things about you behind your back if you’re like Anne. But if you take the time to say the good — and not just as a prelude to a criticism — the people who work for you will try that much harder.

At the ACS, every day was a struggle not to call in sick. I’ve never seen such a demoralized group of people. (Always threatening to take away their holiday time off didn’t help either.)

But tomorrow I’m going back to my current job to try to get another attaboy. Silly? Maybe. [shrug] But it’s nice to be appreciated.

PS: If you’re reading this, McG, it ain’t brown-nosing. When I brown nose you won’t even realize it. ;)