I recently found this chart that perfectly summed up some issues I’ve been dealing with lately:

Truth! The times they are a changing, and bosses who are more concerned with exerting their supreme authority than actually inspiring the best from their employees are going the way of the dinosaurs. Collaboration is key.

Rewind to the first time I was a boss: It may have been inexperience, or it may have been that I was just drunk with my new-found power, but my management style fluctuated between complete disinterest, thinly veiled irritation at being bothered with “unnecessary’ details, followed by frantic, last-minute micromanagement, and ending with a tirade of negative reinforcement. I mean, does that inspire anyone to work harder? Maybe a Willy Loman-esque masochist with daddy-issues…

Needless to say, things did not end well with that employee, and that person is probably still out there somewhere in the world hating…