To All the Bosses

It was on October 8th, 1975 when I walked through the front doors of Raytheon Semiconductor to begin my journey in the High Tech Industry. “Way back then” many things were different, but some basic things have not changed even with the advances in technology: Human Connections and their memories. This reflection is about those memories.

STORY LINE

I have worked for 47 bosses in my 37 years career. (Yes, I can count by each name.) And from each one of them I learned some very valuable lessons. These lessons are the basis of so many Friday Reflections over last 27 years. Here are some memorable quotable quotes and teachings from some of them from my first 25 years in industry:

1. You can’t be a good engineer unless you have experienced all aspects of the processes yourself. Go and install some flow meters, clean the tubes and vacuum pumps with technicians, mix some acid baths and load some boats in furnaces before you start working on the process. (Joe Z)
2. There is a difference between a degree and education. Unfortunately people falsely believe that Degree means Education. (Maxine Gandall)
3. A desk is a dangerous place to view the world. I don’t want desktop engineers and tabletop managers. (Jim Boyd - It was the late 70s. We had only one conference room in the entire plant. Meetings took place on production floor.)
4. You have to think your job as your own business. (Charles Fa, in 1975 - my first boss in industry. He often reminded us about world wars and how people learnt to use resources very effectively during those times.)
5. In this fast moving Industry, we are measured by the degree of failure. (Mike Hill)
6. You must know your personal worth. (Gary Remmen)
7. You have never gone camping? Come and join me for camping in Tahoe. (Jerry Drake) One of the most memorable vacations with the boss and his kids.
8.  Don’t Assume. Constant follow up is the name of the game. (Bipin Shah)
9.  Have you had dinner? (Dave Deardorf. He was the GM of our group, not my direct boss. We were starting a new fab and worked long hours. Often, he would drop by production floor late in the evening. Seeing me there, he used to take me out for dinner)
10. In Asia, most of the business is done over a cup of tea. (Late Mr. Fran Dowd, the VP and GM of our Division. Though I was a very low level in organization, for some reasons not known to me, he had decided to teach me many more practical lessons about real management and working life through his unique STORYTELLING style.)
11. You can delegate many things but you cannot delegate Leadership. (Gidu Shroff)

  

REFLECTION

Bosses came in all shapes, sizes and styles. From each one I learned some very valuable lessons that has been helpful in my career and life. To All The Bosses I have loved Before and Now: Thank You for 37 years of memories.

Comments

[FR team]

Here are few of Points to Ponder from readers when the original version of this FR was pulished several years ago. Thought worth sharing.

1. This wisdom could take someone a lifetime to learn (if ever) without the benefit of such great mentors and teachers. Thank you for sharing it

Posted by: Longtime reader | October 09, 2010 at 09:54 AM

2. Thank you so very much for sharing this Friday Reflection with us. How inspiring!!! I was moved by your generous acknowledgment of each of these terrific bosses and the life lessons each of them had to offer you. Thanks for passing them on. While each of these people are impressive human beings, for sure, I hope that you recognize that you "created, promoted, or allowed" them to have this impact on you. It was who you were being that attracted each of them to you in special ways so that you could learn from them, and I would suspect., they from you.

Posted by: Note from a friend and a teacher | October 14, 2010 at 05:44 PM

3.It is Dangerous to be your boss. (:-

Thanks for the memories. I thought that you would never learn but you proved me wrong. After all these years, you still remember the lesson.

Posted by: Your X | October 09, 2010 at 12:41 AM

4. From your story it seems that in old days there were more personal connections than now. With the advances in technology, we have gotten busier connecting to emails/net and have lesser time to connect with people.

Thank You for touching story.

Posted by: Tek | October 08, 2010 at 09:49 PM

[Malay Man]

Are you able to connecting the dots backward now? Congratulations of accumulating one more year of experience to your working life …

[BHSC]

I remember a few memorable quotes from one of my bosses in particular. He managed manufacturing facilities for ~ 3 years and I was one of his supervisors.

“No surprises…. Not to me, not to your customer, not to your peers... no surprises!”

“You own this plant. I want you to imagine that the responsibility I am giving you is like a red hot branding iron… and I have just placed it on your forehead. Now I am shoving that branding iron through your skull… through your brain… and out the back of your head. With that imagine in mind you can begin to understand the level of ownership I expect you to have. You now own this entire [facilities] plant for ½ of each work week. Anything that goes on, good or bad, you own.” – What the plant Facilities Manager said to me the day I took over as shift 6/7 Maintenance and Operations Supervisor.

…those were interesting years 

[I am not telling]

As they say" Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder". A lot of the credit lies with you that you chose to consider each boss as a unique individual from whom there was something you could learn. The norm- and that includes me- is to consider the Boss as "not sure who made him/her boss"!

Counting from my first short job, prior to coming here for grad school, I have had 12 bosses to date. And unfortunately since until NOW, I did not have a chief in command to teach me that there is something valuable to learn from everyone-I can remember vividly "what i didn't like" about a couple of them far more than what I did appreciate about them.( present Company excluded of course:))

Now I am making a list of at least one memorable lesson I learned from each of my ex-bosses.

So- Thank you Boss for this valuable lesson.

[California Guy]

In keeping with this week's Bosses theme, I find the following 2 articles to be good complementary reading:

"8 Core Beliefs of Extraordinary Bosses"
http://www.inc.com/geoffrey-james/8-core-beliefs-of-extraordinary-bosses.html

"6 Habits of Extraordinary Bosses"
http://www.inc.com/geoffrey-james/6-habits-of-extraordinary-bosses.html

[JongMin]

"You have never gone camping? Come and join me for camping in Tahoe."
Great boss and he was such a caring person.

Camping has been great for me and my wife but when my kid had no friend around to play with, camping was boring thing to her..., I should have found something to give her to enjoy during camping.

[JP]

Thanks for sharing the boss’s quotes with us, very useful, and some of them are simply testimonies of how much they care for people 
I enjoy the learning!!