User Post: Tough Female Bosses: Thank You!

Fresh out of college at the age of 23 and throughout my early twenties, I worked for some very demanding, tough, mistakes-are-never-an-option bosses.

All of these bosses were female.

At the time, I wavered between being scared of disappointing them and incurring their wrath... and irritated that excellence was expected every. single. second.

And although I may always identify with The Devil Wears Prada a little too closely, there's something I want to say to those women who gave me my start:

Thank you.

Looking back at what these female bosses taught me, I could kiss them. They instilled in me a professionalism, code of conduct and pride in my work that I would never have learned without their whipping into shape. And in honor of Women's History Month, I'm paying homage to their toughness. Besides an appreciation for great shoes and poker straight posture,here are the values their hard-as-nails expectations instilled in me.

Punctuality

At all of these jobs, work began at 8:30 a.m. SHARP. Walking in the door at 8:31 a.m. was late. This was pretty brutal after four years spent avoiding any lecture that occurred before 10 a.m. But the training to arrive a little early to every appointment, anticipating delays in public transportation and traffic, have served me well all my years since. Of course now I get all bitchy-twitchy when people are late meeting me, and I tend to annoyingly suggest early morning meetings and conference calls.

Willingness to Admit Mistakes and Say "I Don't Know"

It only took me a few times of long-winded explanations and justifications for my errors or lack of info with tough bosses to learn that just shutting up and admitting "I don't know" is by far the best tactic in the workforce. And I learned that approaching a boss or business associate first with an admittance of mistake gives you the upper hand and a ton more cred than just waiting for your eff-up to be found out.

"Go Big or Go Home"

All of the women I first worked for never did anything halfway, they always went for the whole enchilada. They worked hard, they worked late, they were tenacious. They never demurred that a project or tactic was too tough or doubted their own endurance. They never whined, rarely complained and they didn't deflect blame onto others. They just worked and worked their booties off. And when they reaped the rewards of their success, they celebrated heartily... usually by jamming out of the office to spend more time with family.

Put Family Before Power

It wasn't until I married and began my own family at the age of 28 that I realized what a stellar balance of work and family my previous female bosses achieved. Their spouses and children were always first on their lips, bolded on their daily schedules and top priorities when making their professional commitments...and some of these women had seriously powerful jobs. Looking back on one boss's ability to put a grandchild's performance before an event with world leaders is a great touchstone of mine now when I choose to make professional sacrifices for my family.

Be Discreet

If you haven't already guessed, several of these first bosses I had are very powerful and very public figures. And while I would love to thank them here by name, these great women also taught me the importance of discretion and privacy. And that's something that I try and carry with me, even as I daily perform a job that is all about telling the Internet every little thing as a blogger!

Jessica McFadden may have had tough bosses, but she is gentle with her readers at the popular mom blog A Parent in Silver Spring. Connect with Jessica on Facebook and Twitter.