Some Bosses are God-sent...

I've had some amazing bosses in my career, let's meet one of them..

Sometime in 2006 - 2008, when I was working as a Production Operations Support Engineer, I had a boss, Dr Emmanuel Hudson Sanders (not real name? was visionary, hardworking, intelligent, and an amazing human. While working in separate teams within the same department, we both had a mutual admiration for each other, and when I was due for a promotion, he asked if I wanted to work with him, I said YES and I got transferred to work with him. Before then, I was working in the field, so, I got transferred to the office and was providing support to the field teams.

My promotion was delayed.. The HR guy in charge stood on it for whatever reason. I was on Graduate Progression (GP) and it clearly stated promotion eligibility for GP. I was worried, so I complained to my boss and related what the GP stated about promotion. After listening, he just asked me one question. He said..

"All that you've told me now, if I take you to the Asset Manager, can you repeat it?"

I told him YES. He held my hand and off we went to the Asset Manager.

To cut long story short, my promotion letter came that week and it was backdated to my anniversary and I was paid all the backlog in salary, benefits and allowances. Some HR personnel, in the process of wanting to save costs for the organization intentionally undo others.

That singular act made me go over and above to deliver for my boss. The team outperformed. He got good rankings and it trickled down to all his team members.

And he projected us. He nominated me to be a member of a new initiative in Shell then called TopQuartile (TQ). This signaled my introduction to Six Sigma and business improvement, and we went around the world delivering TQ. I visited different countries (UK, Oman, Netherlands, etc), flew first class and business class, stayed in the hotel for over a year delivering TQ at different locations, got great rankings, accelerated promotions, visibility, exposure, etc. There's no way the story of TQ can be told without mentioning my name.

There are some bosses you can give an arm and a leg for. Once your boss projects and ranks you well, you cannot but give your all for him.

What I did well..

1. I delivered and exceeded targets.

2. Have a Career Sponsor in your corner. Very important !!

3. I was open to learning and new challenges.

4. My boss was a hard worker and a known performer, I matched his energy and we delivered amazing results.

Years later, when the Asset Manager was retiring after a meritorious service, guess who took over from him? ME !!!

Is God not wonderful? I do not play with the preeminence of God in my career and life !!