In yesterday’s post, I said:
Managers have a significant impact on your career and work experience. They can eliminate obstacles in your path, offer timely guidance on things you’re not seeing, and put in a good word for you with the right people.
I did things the hard way that summer. Don’t be like me.
Bring your people along.
My friend Sana asked in response:
“Would your advice change if your manager wasn’t generally helpful or lacked the skills to be?”
Yes.
The bedrock of any healthy management relationship is trust, and not everyone is afforded this luxury. Managers are people, and people are sometimes toxic. This toxicity can permeate the culture of a team and organization in a way that leads to a lack of psychological safety for its people.
Mentors, advisors, and colleagues are vital members of our extended network. We can lean on them for guidance, in addition to honing our judgment and intuition along the way. And these decisions are deeply personal—they connect to our feelings of worthiness, self-image, and confidence.
Over the long arc of your career, you’re likely to have managers you’d work for again, and managers you’d be delighted never to see or hear from again. I hope you have more of the former than the latter.
Willie Jackson helps teams and organizations find harmony. He brings compassion and levity to the challenging work of