Fernando,
I find that people who are most open to growing their own leadership abilities either had very good leaders or very bad leaders to learn from. You are fortunate to be one with a good leader it sounds like. It is important to realize that a leader and staff cannot be successful independent of each other, which you shared.
What characteristics of your leader to you most admire and strive to grow?
Lou Russell
In my case I have an open channel with my boss. This, in one way or another, allows me to understand the business from my boss's perspective. Another key issue is the understanding that my performance is often the key to the success of my boss. I have been with the same boss for years, and he knows that I try to live up to the performance expectations set for my job. Another key issue is that I always treat him with the respect his position warrants.
Bruce,
You make a very important point about the two-way nature of leadership. As a leader, we need to adapt our communication to the person being led. One of the things we talk about a lot in class is "ASK" - did you ask them how much help they wanted, for example?
Also, in terms of working with our own leader, it is equally important to adapt to them. It's like the #1 rule of Improv - make the other person look good and all goes well, with conflict and without. Everyone must learn to ASK for what they and others need. Leaders must coach people they are leading to help them lead.
As a leader, I'd be extremely proud to have someone who worked for me write something like this.
Happy 2009! Lou Russell
My manager is very "hands-off". He does not micro-manage. He clearly has established that his direct reports are fully responsible for their outcomes. They will be given full credit for any accomplishment and will suffer the consequence of any failure. This makes it imperative to fully understand every aspect of every project by managing upward. Having a good open relationship and being ready to "come to conflict" is a must. But knowing when it is time to back off and come to an agreement is equally necessary. This will lead you and your manager to an understanding of each other, allowing you to "get a feel" for even unstated wants or desires on the part of your manager that you can also work to satisfy.
It is also good to give brief, periodic updates to avoid anxiety on the part of your manager and the resulting request for update. But these should be based on your manager's style and his/her "clock" for requesting updates. This is also doable only after you have a good understanding of your manager.
