My manager is the kind of woman many people look up to. Beautiful, intelligent, highly capable, deeply committed to her work, and accomplished from a very young age.

In my early days, she once told me something that stayed with me.

She said she didn’t mind if I worked directly with senior leaders without going through her. Because there are always two sides to it. If you’re good, it will be recognized immediately. And if you’re not, it will be just as clear. Since then, I’ve had the opportunity to work directly with C-level executives.

At my company, there is no time tracking. She once told me she doesn’t focus too much on working hours. It doesn’t matter what time I arrive or leave, as long as the work gets done. If I don’t raise an issue, she assumes everything is fine.

Because of that, I no longer rush out of the house every morning. And naturally, there are also days when I stay later at the office.

Working with her, I’ve been given real ownership. I’ve had the chance to collaborate with leading agencies, media outlets, and broadcasters. She is always willing to introduce me, connect me, let me learn, and then step back. From there, it’s often enough to simply keep her in the loop.

I’ve attended large-scale events and met people I once only knew from afar. There have been business trips that came with significant travel and accommodation costs. She would simply say, “Go and experience it.”

Working alongside her, I feel both recognized and protected. In emails, when presenting work that I contributed to, she consistently uses “our team” instead of “I”. And when conflicts arise with other departments or external partners, she acts as a filter, ensuring that feedback or negative information reaches me in a form that is easier to process.

She works at a strategic level, and naturally, she is always busy. But is she detail-oriented? Absolutely.

I remember a time when we were working on three press releases, each several thousand words long. In the middle of all that, she still noticed that I had missed the word “Associate” in the title “Associate Professor”. Because she has done the detailed work herself, she understands the essence of the problems. She can explain things clearly and guide me in the right direction.

To be able to work with someone like that, to be trusted, empowered, recognized, protected, encouraged to grow, and given opportunities to experience things for the first time…

I know that is, in many ways, a kind of luck in life.