Andria Perez recently wrote about your "unicorn boss," the manager you've worked for who had it all together and made the biggest impact on you and your career. It got me thinking about all the people I've worked for, and the traits in each that I valued most.
I've been fortunate to work for and with a lot of exceptional people, and every one of them taught me something I carried into my own approach to leadership. One has always stood out, Terry Fukami, and here's why.
He always had your back. No matter what happened, you knew you could walk into his office, tell him, and his only response would be to help figure it out. No one was getting blamed, yelled at, or fired, and you weren't getting left out in the cold and expected to just figure it out.
He was more of a coach than a manager. Anything you brought him, he didn't just tell you what to do. He'd walk through it with you. What's the problem? What are your options? Is that going to solve it? What do you need from me to make it happen?
He didn't micromanage. In fact he barely managed at all. You had your work and your deadlines, and he expected you'd meet them unless you told him otherwise. If you missed the mark, the conversation wasn't about how you screwed up. It was about how both of you could improve so it didn't happen again.
He was big on giving people opportunities and helping them grow. If you wanted to try something new or take on more, he'd find a way to make it happen, and that included going to bat to get you a role on another team.
That's all great. Here's the real reason.
Terry was just an absolutely great guy who genuinely and enthusiastically made everyone around him feel like he wanted them to succeed. It was never about him.
We lost Terry last year, and I hadn't spoken to him in a long time. I wish I'd had the chance to tell him how much everything he did meant to me and my career. Since I can't, the next best thing is telling all of you.