Today is National Boss’ Day and I’m going to go off the reservation a bit –
off the topics of programmatic and AI and what’s hot in digital media, not to mention what’s going to happen with the death of the cookie (by the way, we have this covered here at MNI but that’s for another post). I’m moved today to talk about the EQ part of our professional lives. Yes, emotional quotient and why it’s equally, if not more important, than the IQ part.
My team did something extraordinary for me yesterday. It was one of the best and most rewarding 45 minutes that I’ve ever personally or professionally experienced. It’s 9:00am and I’m sitting in my home office culling through emails and setting my day’s agenda when I hear all kinds of honking outside. I live on a cul-de-sac in a pretty rural area, so honking is not the norm! I go outside and to my utter amazement, there is my team, with balloons and smiles and each with their masks on to surprise me for National Boss’ Day – one day early. I could NOT have been more touched. I don’t tear up easily; this was one of those rare times. How lucky am I to have such an amazing team? It is I that am the lucky one.
Good leaders and great teams are a symbiotic relationship. You can’t have one without the other. Maybe you can, but the output and work, and experience of each individual won’t be as rewarding. I was reminded today to be grateful for the people I see and work with every day. Grateful that my team is open and invigorated to cultivate the right atmosphere for all of us, for embracing transparent and honest communication, for knowing nimbleness and flexibility are essential in business and in life, this is all part of share of heart and branding.
Being a strong and effective leader is as much a result of learning from those you lead as anything else. Remember bosses everywhere: give your team members room to grow and expand. Stretch and challenge them. Be human, empathic and authentic in the little moments as well as the big ones --- for this is how relationships strengthen and great teams are grown. You will be so enriched with what you get back, it puts the spring in your step and the jump-out-of-bed-in-the-morning in your routine, and these are priceless gifts.
Thank you, team.
