As a few other people have said, a great manager sees their job as ensuring your (and your team's) success. A poor manager sees your job as ensuring their success. Everything else flows from that.
Bill Campbell famously called this "the right kind of ambition". Right ambition sees personal success as a byproduct that arises from success of the team and the overall mission rather as a worthy goal in its own right.
Part of ensuring the team's success as a manager is however being able to empathize with the team but not always doing what they (think they) want - this sometimes means having the courage to make horrible decisions that you know to be correct rather than make you popular and then communicate them in a non-weasely way. It doesn't help you sleep at night but it does help you to understand next time you read "Of Mice and Men".
The final point is help your manager by being as resourceful and positive as you can be, and making sure they know when there are things that are blocking you that you need their help on because you can't fix them by yourself.
Bill Campbell famously called this "the right kind of ambition". Right ambition sees personal success as a byproduct that arises from success of the team and the overall mission rather as a worthy goal in its own right.
Part of ensuring the team's success as a manager is however being able to empathize with the team but not always doing what they (think they) want - this sometimes means having the courage to make horrible decisions that you know to be correct rather than make you popular and then communicate them in a non-weasely way. It doesn't help you sleep at night but it does help you to understand next time you read "Of Mice and Men".
The final point is help your manager by being as resourceful and positive as you can be, and making sure they know when there are things that are blocking you that you need their help on because you can't fix them by yourself.