Ego, Confidence & the Manager

     The boss was a good-sized man, good-looking in a fleshy sort of way. Had an assertive way of looking at people around him, commanding his surroundings. A man to be paid attention to.

     But that manner exuded ego, not confidence. Here is a case in point:

Management Power, Management Behavior

      
“You can’t run this place by committee.”

     That was the corporate president, responding to a division manager.

     The manager, one month into his first job at this level, had just described how he had directed the department heads to prepare for him “blue sky” budget proposals. The idea was to include in early budget planning a look to the future – what the department manager envisioned as investments for growth over the succeeding few years.

     The president was not persuaded by the idea. He preferred a more-decisive, less-shared approach. The new division manager lost the job a few months later, returned to his previous position as a supervisor and soon left the company.

     A successor, more in the authoritative mold of the president, lasted a year before being flat-out fired. His peremptory style had resulted in unionization of every unit in the division.