What was your best boss like?

I had to stop and think about this one....my jobs over the years have always afforded me a great deal of autonomy and quite honestly I never really felt that i had a boss/ employee relationship that impacted on the job I was doing ( except once and I quit... that's another story!) That said I know that over the years I have had to report to someone at the next level up and the fact that I never really felt that I had a ' boss' speaks well for their management style.

Two names and faces come to mind, both of whom I always felt respected me professionally and whose support I enjoyed. Kay Lee was Director of Nursing at the Louis Brier Hospital in Vancouver. She gave me pretty much free reign to provide whatever aspects of service I saw fit to the residents there, and always seemed so grateful! I enjoyed her as a person too, she was a very caring woman who could also be quite hard nosed when it came to getting done the things that she felt were priorities.

When I worked at the Campbell River Hospital, I reported to Linda Latham. She had a great approach; if you felt something was worth trying in terms of department management she always just said to give it a go! and let you get on with it, to find out whether it worked or no! She too was someone whom I had a lot of respect for professionally, I had seen her in action as a Nurse Manager, and the respect always seemed mutual, which is certainly a great way to feel empowered in your job.