Professional Crush
 

Do you have a professional crush on someone at your place of business?

I’m not talking about the cute receptionist or wanting to experience first-hand the IT Guy’s Hard Drive. Is there someone with whom you work that you just love for their professionalism? Do you want to pick their brains all day? Does their work ethic make you giddy?

There have been people in my past with whom I have worked that are just brilliant and I admire them. Even now there are certain people who I choose to have a dialogue in order to come up with a solution. I sit by them in the meetings. I arrange coffee for brainstorming sessions. I will do anything to work on a project with them. They’re dependable, brilliant and motivated. They just make the work day brighter.

(I knew I was thinking of something I wanted to post earlier when I was away from a computer and could not for the life of me remember what it was. Then my current Professional Crush walked into my office and I remembered!)

Our New CFO is whipping this place into shape. He has a great balance of no BS policy, candor, and also ability to truly listen to his team and lead them in a way I wish my boss would.

I'd consider a lateral position move that would most likely be a demotion, the way my company is structred, just to work under him.

I have had many professional crushes but none in the past 8 years. It's about the same time as when I lost having any mentor. I've been trying to find one, it's just hard to find these days.

In my current position it would be very very hard. It can be difficult being the smartest / most skilled person in the office and this is not just my ego talking.
Yours
ZB

I'd probably go with the term mentor, rather than crush.

I've had two, both exceedingly competent and cranky. The problem with being the best whatever in an office is that every damn thing ends up in your lap. Being a bit disagreeable filters out the trivial stuff.

I was an easy study at the cranky part.

One of my bosses was a good mentor for me. He could take action, solve problems, handle conflict, etc. He was laid off and it was a huge mistake from my point of view. I put my resume out there the day he was let go and I took another job soon after.

I'm on staff, and I admire our faculty members and hope to join then in teaching sometime in the near future. We have people who get hundred thousand dollar grants tossed at them left and right to support their research, make sponsored visits to five universities in five countries in a span of two weeks without missing a class they're scheduled to teach, and people who announce a year in advance that they're going on sabbatical because they need that much time after they get bombarded with requests from other universities and international organizations to work with them. Back when I was a student, I once had a cancelled class because at that time my professor was going to be in Lithuania delivering an address their parliament regarding their policy on international terrorism.

Our finance and purchasing guy is literally Ned Flanders if he kept his religion to himself (complete with the hair and the mustache and the glasses and the -diddly) and I admire the fact that he's always such an upbeat, happy, enthusiastic person.

This doesn't really apply to my workplace or career, but I tend to get professional crushes on people with official credentials, measurable accomplishments, and marketable skills.

I've never had a mentor. Most of what I do currently is self-taught.

Huh. I have a 'professional crush' on my current manager, and a 'crush crush' on her. :-)

She is, without a doubt, the best 'management unit' I've ever had. I could go into various reasons, but basically she enables me to do my job, supports my professional development, calls me out when I'm being unreasonable, and backs me up when I need it.

She's also a hot chick, which causes me to have lots of fantasies/dreams/what have you. And gives me lots of practice in not mixing business with pleasure. (I'm certain that no sexual or romantic relationship is ever going to occur between us, so I keep fantasy strictly fantasy.)

A few years back we brought in a new CFO. She was a breath of fresh air, and something we desperately needed. She was without a doubt the best thing to happen to us in a long time.

Unfortunately, my position was such that I ended up discovering/revealing a number of serious weaknesses in our accounting and financial policies. She grew to hate hearing my name, and to this day I'm sure she thinks I'm either an idiot or a bastard just trying to make her life miserable.

But she was (& is) one of the sharpest, most practical financial minds I've ever met.

I don't think it has to be a mentor. You can have a Professional Crush on a colleague or Subordinate if you admire their work and would choose to work with them on projects frequently.

never have i ever had a professional crush on any of my superiors or anyone that i work with due to thei professionalism.

i used to work with this girl from korea though who was an absolute babe but i didn't like her because of how she answered the phone or whatever.

I just started my own business and I'm in love with the CEO.