Be sure to thank the No. 2’s in your life.
The following is an excerpt from the City Manager Weekly Lowdown.
Weekly Shout Out – No. 2. Sometimes, it is hard to be the Number 2 in any relationship. Ask anyone who has ever served as an assistant supervisor, assistant manager or an assistant/deputy department director and they will probably tell you that a big part of their job is working to meet the needs of their manager and/or supervisor. Sometimes that means putting aside their priorities and objectives in an effort to meet the needs of their boss. It is not always easy and frankly, the praise and recognition often does not come their way as well. But, many great relationships have a No. 2 and organizations, teams or groups would not be as good as they are without their contributions. So today, I offer a shout out to the No. 2s in our organization. I hope you know who you are (because I and your supervisors do) – you are the Robin to Batman, the Garfunkel to Simon, the Messier to Gretzky, the Stockton to Malone, the Pence to Trump, the Jerry to Tom! What you do is invaluable and important and we could never be as great of an organization as we are without your efforts. So today, I raise my hat to the No. 2s in the organization and say thank you. Thank you for your oftentimes, quiet dedicated leadership and drive. Thank you for taking the bullets when you need to, thank you for putting the needs of others ahead of yourselves. You are not forgotten and are critical to our success. For those of you that have No. 2s (including myself), I hope you will let them know how much you appreciate them and value their contributions. Our success is dependent on their success!