Career Development Rule #5: Choose To Work For A Leader, Not A Boss

When seeking employment most people focus on good pay and benefits. Those are important. Equally as important is the person for whom you will be working. This individual, commonly or mistakenly referred to as one's "boss," will inevitably play a crucial role in your career development, or the lack thereof.

Because management of anything implies control of it, those who manage others have to be concerned, to some extent, with controlling them to get the results they are responsible for. Too often their fear of not getting those results drive them to become overbearing and engage in micromanaging due to lack of trust.

To a boss, the work of the company gets done through them.

Leaders who are not concerned with being someone's boss are committed to getting the same results, but they have a genuine desire to unite workers with opportunities that allow them to take advantage of their superpowers.

To a leader, the work of the company get done through the workers.

If your boss is not a leader, you will be used as an instrument. If your boss is a leader, you will be viewed, utilized, and treated as an ally. Successful career development does not happen without allies. Choosing a leader for a boss is easily one of the wisest career decisions that one can make.