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The article strikes me as immature responses to immature behavior from others. It's a How-To for creating a caustic environment. Try this: def leadership()

The article strikes me as immature responses to immature behavior from others. It's a How-To for creating a caustic environment. Try this: def leadership(): while true: have_clear_goals() articulate_goals_clearly() There is other stuff to good management, sure. But this will go a long way. The section on "when someone makes it personal" really irks me. It should never be personal in a healthy organization. You can vigorously debate the design, the implementation, or any other issue, while keeping the focus on the issue. It never needs to be personal. If it ever gets personal, a manager must step in and immediately squash that and make it clear "That's not how we debate things here. Personal attacks are unacceptable. Focus on the issues." But, really. Just have clear goals, then most decisions will make themselves. Debates can be settled by measuring alternatives against the goals. If, when measured against the goals, there is no clearly winning solution, then which one you pick probably doesn't matter, so everyone should stop wasting energy on decisions that don't matter and focus on the ones that do.

ryanmarsh 10y ago
This! I have observed at least 100 teams over the last 5 years. At any given time I'm coaching 4-10 teams. Every six months or so I get new teams. The number one problem I see is a lack of clear consistent communication of leadership's intent and values. Disclaimer: I might be hypersensitive to this because of my military experience. Complex adaptive systems of humans are always searching for systems with which to signal fitness and interpret fitness signals from others. If leadership does not pound these into the organization from their unique vantage point then the system will adopt its own in the vacuum. Rarely does such a scenario turn out optimal for all participants (for reasons beyond the scope of this comment).
- dbcurtis 10y ago
  It is interesting that you mention military experience. The best manager I ever worked for had been an Israeli commando officer during the military service portion of his life. (If you remember the rescue at Entebbe, he was in the "Plan B" unit that was staged and ready to go in without the element of surprise should Plan A fail. Happily, Plan A worked.) So what made him a great manager? 1) You never had any doubt in your mind whatsoever what he wanted and when he wanted it. 2) He then asked you if you had everything you needed to get the job done. And then he listened to what you said until he was certain that he understood, and got you what you needed or adjusted the plan. When you think about it, failure to do those two things as a commando officer means having to write unpleasant letters to parents. I mentioned this to another friend, also ex-commando (Royal Navy Special Ops Diver "We taught the SEALs how to do it.") He told me he often spent days thinking about exactly the right words to articulate the goal to his unit.
  - ryanmarsh 10y ago
    You nailed it. Here's the mission, what do you need for the mission, and if all else fails here's my intent. People think the military is full of mindless robots but in reality that's just how you're treated during indoctrination. Combat leaders must enable their people to thrive in chaos.

ryanmarsh 10y ago

This! I have observed at least 100 teams over the last 5 years. At any given time I'm coaching 4-10 teams. Every six months or so I get new teams. The number one problem I see is a lack of clear consistent communication of leadership's intent and values. Disclaimer: I might be hypersensitive to this because of my military experience. Complex adaptive systems of humans are always searching for systems with which to signal fitness and interpret fitness signals from others. If leadership does not pound these into the organization from their unique vantage point then the system will adopt its own in the vacuum. Rarely does such a scenario turn out optimal for all participants (for reasons beyond the scope of this comment).

dbcurtis 10y ago
It is interesting that you mention military experience. The best manager I ever worked for had been an Israeli commando officer during the military service portion of his life. (If you remember the rescue at Entebbe, he was in the "Plan B" unit that was staged and ready to go in without the element of surprise should Plan A fail. Happily, Plan A worked.) So what made him a great manager? 1) You never had any doubt in your mind whatsoever what he wanted and when he wanted it. 2) He then asked you if you had everything you needed to get the job done. And then he listened to what you said until he was certain that he understood, and got you what you needed or adjusted the plan. When you think about it, failure to do those two things as a commando officer means having to write unpleasant letters to parents. I mentioned this to another friend, also ex-commando (Royal Navy Special Ops Diver "We taught the SEALs how to do it.") He told me he often spent days thinking about exactly the right words to articulate the goal to his unit.
- ryanmarsh 10y ago
  You nailed it. Here's the mission, what do you need for the mission, and if all else fails here's my intent. People think the military is full of mindless robots but in reality that's just how you're treated during indoctrination. Combat leaders must enable their people to thrive in chaos.