John Woods <jwoods@execpc.com> makes a very good submission which I
agree with
>...I'd like to make a few comments here. First, you may learn from hard ass
>managers, but what do you learn? How to be hard yourself? That you have
>to be on your toes to minimize criticism? How to avoid taking risks that
>might cause you to make mistakes? How to make yourself look good even when
>others are in trouble? Or maybe you even learned how to be more
>productive on occasion. It seems to me that all except the last item are
>common when you have a hard ass manager.
I had another boss who scared lots of people and had the impacts you
describe. I responded with a hard ass style and we got along wonderfully.
I acted as the translator and often had to chase after people and cheer
them up after a meeting with him emphasizing that it was his style and
nothing personal.
This VP contributed in a major way to the company. We developed mutual
respect, and I learned from him. Hard style can "unfreeze" people to
enable change in certain circumstances. Some people worked better with the
adrenalin high that he induced in them. Others worked like heck to be
ahead of plan to avoid his reviews. Was he as effective as a perfect
leader. No way.
But let's just say that on a scale of white to black he was just dark
grey, not black
--Keith Cowan <72212.51@CompuServe.COM>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>