I had a boss who drove me crazy. Well, actually who drove me to get another job. The problem was that I could never do anything right, unless I did exactly what she told me to. Nothing satisfied her unless it was done precisely her way. And while she was intelligent and had plenty more experience than me, sometimes I really did have a good idea, or a better approach. And this is marketing, for cripes sakes, not rocket science. We're working with words and images. Doing cool stuff with lead generation and social media, not brain surgery. So you'd think there'd be room for experimentation, for creativity, to take some chances. But not under her. So I moved on.

It's amazing how frequently those in charge - of a department, a company, a country - seem to confuse their role of being in charge with being right. Not right in the sense of making the best strategic decisions on direction and investment. Not right in terms of setting organizational goals and priorities. But literally right. Every idea, every action, sometimes even every word must be theirs. The problem with this approach to being in charge is that while it may ensure that you get all the credit all the time, it also ensures that your group, or company, or country, will never grow beyond your individual level of competence. Having a bunch of yes men to execute your orders with precision may make you feel powerful but it squashes the initiative, creativity and real growth that comes from empowering a team and encouraging them to use their own initiative to reach the goals you've defined for them.

I wondered what ever happened to that boss...

No matter what you are in charge of - what are you doing to harness and inspire your team to not be just like you, but together be even better?