What it's all about

We all have had a bad boss. I have had a few bad bosses in my time; but I learned as much from them as the great bosses I have had.

There was the boss who would pull out his business card and highlight his name and title and make me read it to him as a means to exert his authority.

There was the boss who was smart as all get-out but who had no social skills, who told us on his first day that "we were not a great team of managers, some of you should not be here, but I need to make the best of the situation".

Working for these bosses, gave me perspective as to what I wanted to aspire to. It validated what made the great leaders I had worked for, great.

It is about transparency, trust and respect. It is about confidence in yourself , and passing that confidence to your team. It is about empathy, putting yourself in the shoes of others. It is about setting vision and imparting energy. It is about seeing the talent and potential in your team and pulling that together with clear, focused direction. It is understanding that when you have authority, you rarely need to use it because influence works better; it is about respecting and motivating your team, and understanding that at the end of the day, that is what garners respect.