Thanks To The Best Boss I Ever Learnt From

Lorie was my first, and you never forget your first eh, especially if it's a great experience, and it was.

So what made Lorie so influential on my work life?

I was 20 years of age and St Ivel in Swindon was my first 'proper' job after being a paperboy* or working as a waiter in a fancy hotel restaurant. It was both out of Monmouth and inside of an office where people wore suits, sat in pods, and stared at computers for a large part of the 8am - 5pm (not that I ever did those hours, far too early!)

Being such a cocky little sod I thought I knew everything, I certainly had a natural ability with the work (programming financial and forecasting reports on a mainframe to splurge out reams and reams of paper for accountants to make sense of).

I worked with a great crew, most were slightly older than myself but we were all similarly fresh faced, party-focused and in ti for a good time not a long time.

Lorie was the boss. She was the Management Accountant, later I believe to become the Finance Director, and was on a rocket like trajectory up the corporate hierarchy before stepping out to run her own highly successful consultancy firm.

For me she was so clear, understanding, boundaried, and a massive team player. Yes, we had some tight deadlines during budget times but Lorie was there in the trenches with us all, supporting us, defending us, and even tapping on keyboards getting everything correct. She then had her own job of taking the raw info we supplied and turning it into a comprehensible and actionable pack for the monthly exec meeting.

Watching her allowed me to formulate three guiding principles for my work life

1. The 3 C's made up of:
   • Good information
   • Clear communication
   • Active connections
2. We are all in it together ("agile" team approach)
3. It's only work

I also can't go past all the times Lorie let me have my own thoughts and say even when it was probably challenging and/or inappropriate - "Please don't say anything bad to the Mayor Mike" ;).

We also both remember the moment I walked, unannounced, into her office and it was immediately obvious to me that it was a bad moment. I started blurting out my trivial chat and Lorie answered my questions as politely as she could.

"I'm interrupting something aren't I, your words and your face are telling me two different stories."

I have tried to be like Lorie in that regard, but haven't always succeeded, my face always gives me away. :)

Thank you Lorie for being the seed to much of my professional thinking, approach, and on-going growth. I miss ya, and we need to have a video catch-up sometime soon!

And as a blast from the past for all that worked alongside me in the Budget and Finance Team at St Ivel in Dorcan, Swindon, here's some FCS-EPS coding for you ... and what does '600' make you think of?

* I was fired from the paper run but that's ok, I've been made redundant and even fired a few times during my work life. It's never really bothered me as it was obviously not working for them nor me and was time to move on. I've never wrapped my own self worth up in the job I do.

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