We tend to look in specific places for specific characteristics – to entrepreneurs for innovation, the military for courage and resolution, firefighters and police for unflinching service, to government for stability in crisis, and in particular to politicians for astute direction in the midst of disorder. It’s normal enough. It is better to think of these characteristics, though . . .
The question of how negative individual behavior affects the workplace has received considerable attention over the past few years. And it’s good that it should do so, for at least two reasons. . .
With his previous book, “The No Asshole Rule,” Stanford University Management Professor Bob Sutton struck a powerful chord, resonating strongly with many of us – most of us – struggling mightily to do good, decent work in organizations of all sorts all around the land. In this one, he has picked out an important theme to carry his message effectively and meaningfully forward. It is: bosses matter. Discussed in the same context of the previous book, “Good Boss, Bad Boss” establishes the case for why bosses are so vital to the establishment of a healthy, personally satisfying, organizationally productive workplace – and why those who are dismissive of this fact for that very reason so often wind up actually being so toxic. In a very strong stage-setting chapter Sutton makes it clear why bosses matter. Quoting a researcher, he points out that “people do not quit organizations, they quit bad bosses.”
Continuing from Friday’s post, today we are going to finish up reviewing some of the blog and press activity of the past few weeks which touches on themes we expect to address here soon. Again, virtually all of this material is on my daily reading list, and I mention that here because I think it would make an immediately effective addition to the daily scan of any serious manager or student of management; I hope you will be persuaded and add some of this to yours. . .
A lot of interesting stuff has been going on over the past few weeks. A good bit of it touches on themes we’ll likely be visiting, here, soon, so let’s take a closer look at some of it . . .
We talked Thursday about asking what we want from interactions with our colleagues at work, whether peers, juniors, or seniors. We want to place the relationships in a sustainable and productive context, and to be sure we begin to see ourselves as co-contributors rather than the center of a universe with only uncooperative problems for satellites. It’s a powerful question . . .
We often think that the best managers – or, especially, “leaders” – connect on a deep and profound level with their employees, establishing a mutual understanding and commitment to each other. The sad reality, though, as mentioned yesterday, is that most of us lack the perspective, maturity, and discipline to pull it off. That may seem a harsh claim to make, but if we . . .
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