I'm fortunate that I have a fantastic relationship with my boss, due to a previous internship I did with him almost 10 years prior to taking the position that I'm in. I've found that if communication is a two-way street (including some issues that could be considered personal), then many of the points you mention just seem to fall in line.

@Norcross
That's great you and your boss have a good relationship. I believe any (good) employee/boss relationship takes time and a willingness for both parties to *work* at syncing their communication well.

@Dawn van Emden
Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed what I had to say. Good points about the incompetent managers. It gives me some stuff to think about for my upcoming post on ineffective managers.

@Jamie Varon
Being able to empower and motivate people are great boss traits to have, however, I believe that someone else's enthusiasm/willingness to motivate you can only go so far. Being able to keep your own soul focused, motivated, interested and enthusiatic for the work you do is primarily the worker's responsiblity (in my opinion). It's a choice we make everyday - are we going to challenge ourselves to be inspired? Or, are we going to rely on the crap shoot of being motivated by someone else?
In one way, it's a matter of what you would prefer: inspiring work/uninspiring boss or uninspiring work/inspired boss? The best would be a combination of both, but I personally think that if you are inspired to do your work anyway, an inspiring boss is a lucky bonus.
Great point - it's got me thinking about some other topics I could write in the future.

I agree with Jamie on her point. Even if you show initiative, a bad boss will likely be bent on keeping you down for whatever reason.

For example, my boss was always saying to let her know if there were projects we wanted to take on. When they announced my company was going to start blogging, I volunteered right away to do one for our business related site (I am The Office Newb, afterall). However, a few days later my boss came to me and said she had assigned a freelancer to do that and instead offered me the opportunity to write a culinary blog--something I'm neither qualified nor interested in. Ultimately I ended up not taking on the project.

I think that workers should absolutely be motivated and pro-active about seeking projects that interest them, however, when you are low on the totem pole, you just have to accept that sometimes people don't want to give you extra responsibility.

@Office Newb
Your point is interesting. Extra responsiblity doesn't always mean "more interesting." It must means more work, which is not always what employees are looking for. But workplace antics like cronyism, favoritism aside, I'm sure effective managers have their reasons for not doling out what employees deem extra (or more interesting) responsibility.

Whether they're low on the totem pole or not...

The blogging project you describe sounds like something your boss thought you would like to do no matter what the topic. And, perhaps, it didn't cross her mind that you volunteered for it b/c of the blogging/subject appeal.

So, when she decided to have a freelancer write the business blog and approached you about the culinary blog, it obviously didn't occur to her that is why you signed up to do the project in the first place (to write the business blog).

I could be wrong - you know better than I do about that.

Did you ever have a conversation about why she opted to work with a freelancer and not you?

@Jamie Varon
You're right. A de-motivated, uninspired person would be just as miserable with a *good* boss as they would be with a bad boss. So, it doesn't matter if the boss is inspiring if the employee can't find their own motivation to remain (or become) inspired.

@ Raven Moore - Absolutely. I'm not arguing that a motivating boss can motivate anyone. I'm saying that a motivating boss will be the best at upholding and sustaining an already motivated employee. And, potentially, motivate someone who may have lost inspiration at a job.

There always needs to be a base of enthusiasm to begin with. I think we both agree on that. What I think we differ on is how much emphasis must be placed on the boss to inspire and motivate their employees to action versus what happens when a motivated person encounters a boss who is uninspiring. It has been my experience that the unmotivated, poorly performing boss could eventually unmotivate their team, no matter how intrinsically inspired they are.

Then again, maybe I haven't been around people who are so motivated that it wouldn't matter if their boss was Michael Scott from The Office, they'd still be superstars!

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