MANAGERS TYPES AND STYLES

Managers are people too! (Sometimes… just kidding☺) When your job starts to feel overwhelming, remember that your manager’s responsibilities are much bigger than your responsibilities, and of a different nature. A manager’s first responsibility is the welfare of the company – the welfare of his staff comes only second. If your manager is curt or unfriendly, try not to take it personally – she/he is merely trying to ensure the success of the company and its employees. Let’s look at the various managerial styles.

• The Perfect Manager – The title says it all – there’s nothing to add. If you are working under a genuinely terrific manager,’ and you have a strong working relationship… hold on to that job like grim death, (hang on to that manager and don’t let that manager get away), improve your skills and advance with your manager. When managers are promoted, they will generally take along a successful assistant. I’ve seen such loyalty many times – even when a manager moves from one company to another.
• The Introvert – A person who, although she/he may need time alone, nevertheless is able to present a dynamic personality before a large audience. Still, introverts are generally uncomfortable in groups and not interested in small talk. An introvert may even resent pleasantries and friendly advances from people who are just trying to be nice. Such personalities may come off as aloof, arrogant, or rude. Yet science has in recent years learned a fair deal about the workings of introverted personalities – we have found that such people process information in a fundamentally different way from the rest of us. Most of us are behind the learning curve on this research, and find we cannot, but resent the reticence of introverts. But when dealing with an introverted manager, try to remember that it is merely the combination of intrinsic personality attributes and the pressures of a high stress position that sometimes makes him or her unpleasant company. Nevertheless, the introvert manager is professional, dedicated, and a pleasure to work for.
• The Extrovert – The personality of an extrovert finds social situations more rewarding than introverts – not necessarily because they are more social people, but more often because they are more sensitive to the potential rewards of social situations. This was noted in an article by Richard E. Lucas, PhD., Ed Diener, PhD, and other colleagues of the University of Illinois. It was also noted that extroverts enjoy and value close interpersonal bonds – a trait that sits comfortably in the leadership role. The Extrovert managers are generally more pleasant company, but it can be valuable, sometimes, to take what they say with a grain of salt; remember that their first allegiance is to the company, and try not to feel betrayed if you find your manager’s personality inconstant or even slightly dishonest.
• The Micro-Manager – This type of manager exercises raw power. Micro-Managers enjoy asserting authority for its own sake – not always because it’s necessary. They have difficulty leaving the management of the employee’s workload up to the employee. Such managers are extremely unpleasant to work under. They routinely interrupt and mismanage office business, and make the workplace unpleasant and unproductive for the rest of the staff. They distort deadlines so as to overemphasize the office’s reliance on the managerial staff. Micro-Managers control how and when work gets done. It takes a high degree of social dexterity and appeasement to remain calm and on favorable terms with this sort of manager; they pay no attention to the knowledge and experience of others, they are always right. Under this sort of manager, you can expect a workload with unnecessary increases that serve nothing other than the manager’s desire to feel validated and in control.
• The Nano-Manager – If you thought the Micro-Manager hovered over your desk like a drone managing most details, and double checking your progress on projects, the Nano-Manager makes the Micro-Manager look like a forgetful first time manager. The Nano-Manager sticks to you like super glue and has a list of everything you should be doing, according to their expectations, and triple checks. You find you will spend more time checking in, and updating your Nano-Manager than you have time to do your job. If you want a non-thinking position with no responsibility or initiative required this may be the manager for you. I, personally, avoid this type of manager, and trust me I’ve had them.
• The Ogre – The dictionary describes an ogre as a person who is felt to be particularly cruel, brutish or hideous. A perversely bad, cruel or wicked person. We’ve all had managers who had tendencies of an ogre, and many of us have experienced working under a manager who truly was an ogre. Once you’ve experienced this type of management, you must avoid working in this atmosphere at all costs. I recently had a manager of this caliber, and I thought I was pretty adept at weeding them out during an interview… wrong! This ‘Ogre, Nano-Manager Combo’ joined the firm after my employment… I inherited the ONM (Ogre-Nano-Manager). Remember, you can’t change this type of manager or supervisor, you must either tolerate this behavior in your superior, or co-worker, or leave. You are the one who must adapt, or get out. Don’t expect management to assist in changing this type of behavior. I and many others have found HR to be useless in rocking the boat. It appears they most-likely side with the level above you… SUCKING up, not down.

InHumane Resources Is Not Doing Their Job!

Or Do They Not Know What Their Job Is?

You know what never ceases to amaze me?  What Delmira, you ask.  The stupidity of businesses, firms, companies, call them whatever you like.  The businesses that run their business without any regard for their employees.  Not giving them supervisors and managers that know how to perform their job, but providing managers who CAN’T MANAGE!  Managers who cannot put their narcissistic behavior on the back burner to do what they were hired to do; and that is work for the company and not their ego.

These are the managers who are never wrong, play with employees minds.  Managers who need to put their staff down to achieve self-gratification.  Their brilliance has long been misplaced with hurtful and ambitious thoughts and actions.  It is their jealous of the aptitude of their staff?  Have they forgotten, it is the staff that makes the manager.  A good staff that can work in harmony is a staff whose manager appears to be a success.

There are enough requirements and tests for the support of a manager… where is their requirements and tests of a good manager.  Take a company I know in New York City.  The company appears to be going places, but at a snail’s pace, held back by the Inhumane Resource Department, who doesn’t pay attention to the handwriting on the wall.  When a documented three employees, who all reported to the same manager, with abusive tendencies, lying, misdirecting his/her staff go to IR (Inhumane Resources) reporting the problem of the manager, nothing is done, and they all leave, one-by-one.  What happens to the department?  What happens to the morale?  What happens to the bottomline of the company?  They are being setup for failure by a manager who is incompetent and unable to manage.

I hope a few companies read this small article and start paying attention to the department staff of their organization.  They may find that instead of losing three to ten staff members, maybe one manager should be replaced with a competent manager.  Profits would rise, productivity would skyrocket, and there would be less need to put Zoloft in the drinking water.

Just For The Fun Of It…

Once Upon A Time, as fables go, but this is no fairy tale, nor is it embellished for entertainment purposes. This is real, and I watched this corrupt gang of ostensible managers and staff unfold their plot to destroy an innocent co-worker’s life and emotional well-being…just for the fun of it! This took place in the mid-80’s when Human Resource Departments were starting their transition to becoming the ’friendly-hr’, as opposed to ’friendly-fire’. I think some HR departments have made it, but not enough in my opinion.

I had gone from running my own word processing business, to selling it, and taking a job at a large corporate office. While employed approximately 3-months as a computer graphic designer, I shared an office cubicle for two with Meredith, or ‘M’ for short. Our positions did not overlap, and there wasn’t a need to talk, except for the usual courtesies… hello, good morning, see you tomorrow, etc. I had made office friends with a couple of admins, and one TDP (text document processor), whom I thought was sweet; let’s call her Frieda, for frightening, with a capital ‘F’ for short.  I’m calling the victim Meredith, or ‘M’ for short.

The characters are: I’m Delmira, of course, wearing the white hat. Frieda wearing the black hat. Meredith, or ‘M’ for short, wearing the pink hat of innocence and sacrifice. HR, of course, represents the HR Department, Managers as managers, co-workers as co-workers and so forth. We now have a pretty clear idea of the players.

One day, while lollygagging at the coffee machine, Frieda approached me, poured herself a cup of coffee and casually said…”Do you want to be in on the pool?” Thinking of the normal pool activities, football, baseball, basketball and the like. I said, “Oh what pool?” Frieda replied, “The one about Meredith, the gal you share a cubicle with.” Still in the dark, now thinking she is expecting, and we’re betting on the delivery date… oh, I don’t know. Finally, I said, “What pool? What for? What are you talking about?”

Frieda responded… “When she’ll have her nervous breakdown.” I couldn’t wrap my head around what I was hearing. I felt a knot forming in my stomach and nausea began to overwhelm me. Trying not to look shocked, I repeated, “Oh, what breakdown?” Frieda then re-enacted their efforts and time commitment in plotting and planning this evil deed. Starting with the Division Engineering Manager, down through five or six staff members, they had carefully spent their evenings undoing Meredith’s work, deleting her files on her computer, and doing a general bang up job of turning her mind into a crumbled, confused and frightened state. I softly said, “no, I don’t think I’ll be in on that pool… I have to work in the same office as Meredith.”

I then escaped to the closest women’s room where I could hide in a stall until I was able to overcome my obvious feelings and not reflect on my conversation with Frieda. I felt as though I had been hit with a 2 by 4 in the stomach. I resurfaced after about 30-minutes and quietly went to my cubicle where Meredith was diligently working on reconstructing her previous day’s work.

Keep in mind, this was when computers were fairly new, no flash drives to capture your work for safekeeping, and none of the tools now available to workers. Documents were input into computers in TDP formatting and Word Star, and Microsoft was not a group of applications that practically did your work for you. All documents were created by command driven instructions using DOS.

I slithered into my cubicle and tried to work, but I couldn’t quite get any work accomplished without my stomach churning and my mind fighting the tears caused by the rat packs behavior. For the next week, I just watched and observed what was going on. Frieda reminded me to keep my mouth shut if I knew what was good for me, as she could have me fired in an instant, since I was a new employee and on the 3-month probation for new employees.

Each evening my husband and I discussed the situation over dinner trying to come up with a solution, and I finally decided the best approach would be to befriend my cubicle mate, ease her mind, explaining the evil conspiracy that was taking place. The next day I secretly approached ‘M’, as I knew I was being watched by several of the conspirators. I caught her alone in the women’s restroom and suggested we meet for lunch that week, of course, at a restaurant off the beaten track of co-workers. I suggested we take separate cars, and not tell anyone. This wasn’t difficult to arrange, as ‘M’ was so paranoid by this time, she thought it was business as usual.

Arriving at the restaurant first, got us a table in the back of the dining area just in case. Meredith arrived after I sat down, she looked happy, as if she had just made a new friend. Little did I know the friendship we were creating that day would last a lifetime. The restaurant was a small, quaint, Mandarin Chinese restaurant. We started with the usual chit-chat like… how long have you worked at the company, and your area of marketing seems intriguing. Then I decided to get to the point, and asked ‘M’… Do you feel like files are missing from your computer? Do you think things aren’t as you left them the night before? Meredith blurted out… “Yes is it happening to you too?” I sometimes think I’m losing my mind. Versions of documents are always wrong, files are lost, my notes and agendas are always a mess, I’ve missed meetings as my calendar is wrong, no matter what I do.”

I listened to her go on for about 5-minutes and then I couldn’t stand it anymore, and responded, “It isn’t you. You’re alright. They are doing it to you.” And then I started crying. The look on her face was devastating. ‘M’ responded with, “What are you talking about?” “What do you mean?” I repeated the conversation I had with Frieda. A long silent pause followed as ‘M’ held back the tears, and tried to control her emotions. I don’t know, but I still find it difficult to hold back my emotions when I think of this entire incident.

My suggestion was for me to go to HR and meet with someone who could help. This is where my belief system in HR starts to deteriorate. Meredith was to make notes of all the incidents at her desk that were in question and we meet again to piece things together. I assured ‘M’ I would not abandon her, and I was willing to accept termination from the company if things didn’t work out the way they were expected. ‘M’ and I took about a week to plan our move and organize our notes before I approached HR with the documentation. I was becoming more and more nervous as time passed, but never thought there was further collaboration in the demise of ‘M’.

The HR meeting day arrived, I casually took my folder of notes I’d prepared, and stopped in for a visit with our HR representative. We talked, the representative diligently made handwritten notes and asked appropriate questions to ensure she had captured the necessary details. After approximately an hour, our discussion was finished, meticulous notes were taken, and the HR representative laid her pen on her desk, looked at me, and with an expressionless face and said… “Do you like working here, Delmira?” I responded, “Yes, very much thank you.” The HR representative then said… “If you do, go back to your desk and forget you ever came to this office to discuss this.” I quickly noted she had taken all her handwritten notes and added them to my personnel file as she was talking to me.” I then felt the wave of nausea overcome the crackle in my voice. The representative ended our conversation with… “Do you understand?” I answered with “Yes, of course. I picked up my things, left her office, and stopped at the nearest phone to call ‘M’, and give her the results of the meeting with HR. I knew we wouldn’t be able to discuss the meeting details with HR until after work at an out of the way coffee shop.

We met at the coffee shop, and I reported the HR meeting results. No regret on my part, although I needed my job, I had an idea what was going to happen to me, and my so-called career at this company. I’ve discussed grey areas in my thinking, and the fact there aren’t any grey areas in Delmira’s life between right and wrong. Meredith and I decided that we would take steps, to preserve her work each evening, keep to ourselves and not lead on I had shared any of this information with ‘M’. We setup dummy account files and renamed the actual files to protect their existing identity… an effortless way of confusing the guys wearing the black hats.

The department manager’s admin took me aside one day and said she would be leaving the company, as she couldn’t stand to listen to all the meetings taking place on the other side of her cubicle wall on how they were going to get me for discussing it with HR; yet another glowing example of employee protection and confidentiality.

Now I knew it was a matter of time and my job as I knew it would continue to become a living hell. I tried to transfer out of the department, but no one wanted to hire me. No singular reason I just wasn’t a satisfactory fit for other positions. I hate it when people think I have limited intelligence. I finally figured a way out of this predicament and decided that I would take a step backward in my career. I started applying for positions that were at a lower level. The evil-doers hadn’t noticed my attempts to transfer out at a lower level position, they had only thought to block advancement using the equal to or greater than theory in my acquiring a new position. I was now using the lessor than theory and it worked. I went from a graphic designer to administrative assistant, and the joke was on them because the administrative assistant position paid more money than the graphics position creating clip art. I wore a smirk on my face as I moved to my new position down the hall. Wow, wish I had taken a picture of their faces when I wheeled my belongings to my new cube working for a division manager with clout. Fortunately for me, he loved my sense of humor and thus sparked self-confidence back into Delmira.

The manager’s assistant left the company to pursue nicer co-workers out there in the world. ‘M’ left the company and eventually had her well-deserved emotional rest. Frieda, in her mid-30’s at the time, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and passed away. The evil manager was eventually fired a couple years later and passed away as a result of a brain tumor, and other evil-doers of this group received their due Karma. As for Delmira, she survived them all, and went on to take advantage of an early retirement from this company, without ever saying another word about the incident. Everyone knew I did the right thing,’ but no one had the courage to say so. I did make people very nervous in their presence, especially if they had a tendency to wear the black hat.

After this whole incident had fallen off the radar, about eight victims of this department, wearing the white hats, formed a dinner club. Our T-shirts read, “We Survived Corporate Engineering” and for many years we enjoyed dinners together.

Meredith and I are still friends today.

Delmira’s Thoughts on Performance Reviews…

Finally, Delmira’s thoughts on Performance Reviews. I had learned that the purpose of performance reviews were to help the employee improve, provide better service to customers, improve work habits, gain a better understanding of their job function, grow with the company, increase performance and become a better team player and staff member. I also learned that it is the manager’s responsibility to establish and maintain a successful staff. A successful staff is the basis for a successful manager.

There are many companies that believe in and support this vision, but those companies also have successful teams, too. The companies that use the performance reviews as a punishment tool need to build less fearful staff meetings and one-on-one meetings. I firmly believe that the purpose of one-on-one meetings should take place at least once monthly. The purpose of these meetings should be to discuss what’s going well, and what’s going wrong; what to change and what not to change; how’s the employee doing and how’s the employee not doing; who’s on track and when to change tracks.Therefore, the annual performance evaluation is an End Of Year One-On-One, and Plan For The Coming Year’s Expectations.

A company I once worked for had the perfect solution to performance reviews and one-on-ones. Each employee, together with their manager, created a contract of the coming year’s expectations, responsibilities and action plan. Together they created a contract, agreed on the expected results and responsibilities. Each signed the contract and started the performance evaluation for the year. There is no question what is expected, if the contract is not met, there are penalties, and if the contract is met, there are rewards… WAH LAH a Yearly Performance Review. Therefore, no fretting, no question as to meeting expectations, and certainly no sweaty palms entering the review meeting.

One-On-One meetings are for planning updates, directional modifications, and any immediate issues that arise; and using the contract as a base for each meeting helps create a progress report. In some cases, the contract may need an addendum as we all know, nothing stays the same, and an addendum may be required to add or delete specific changes to the contract and stay in agreement… No questions at the EOY. WAH LAH! Performance issues are reviewed and discussed as they arise, and if the performance issues are regarding the signed contract, no one has a surprise on their face… just in their paycheck. No secrets, no hidden agendas, just performance. In my estimation, this allows for more productive time, and less wasted time.

Now this should work both ways. This also provides the employee with constant feedback to the manager on how he/she is perceived. This process should also be a heads up for the manager on their skill level of managing. Therefore, at the time of the performance review everyone can exchange their thoughts, plans, and no surprises. Better yet, begin the plan for the coming year of growth.

Delmira Has Caused Another Dilemma

Let’s look at the receptionists position. A receptionist is hired, primarily for her warm personality, and ability to welcome visitors by greeting them with a smile, warm conversation, and give the visitor a comfortable feel of the organization. Whether the visitor is an applicant or CEO, the comfort zone extends to all. Assuming that the receptionist fulfills the requirements of the job, how can she successfully perform the responsibilities of the job if she is denied access to general information about the company, or copied on emails of expected visitors and interviews. Information allows the receptionist to be proactive when visitors arrive, such as having their documentation/badge prepared, knowing where the meeting is taking place, and other people involved in their meeting. All this provides the visitor with the feeling of gracious communication, friendly company, and one that cares and provides a favorable appearance of the firm.

Well Delmira was hired as a receptionist because staff and visitors enjoyed her welcoming, outgoing personality. It was the visitors comments to management that moved her from a temporary hire to a permanent hire. So what’s the problem, you ask? Delmira again is being asked to change her warm, welcoming personality. (Damn, she’s practiced it for so many years it is going to be hard to change.) Yep, Delmira is confused, too. Do you remember the movie, it may have even been made into a musical, ‘I Love You. Now Change.’  This seems like a Daja Vu  from the good ole married days, well if so, I want a quickie divorce, only this time I get the car and he gets the bills, I get alimony, and a trip to Europe.

Since Delmira is not the new kid on the block, she does know what she’s doing. Her manager, the narcissist, has met his dilemma with Delmira. The ‘What If’ is always in action with her boss… if she has that information, she might mention it to blah blah blah…, if she knows an employee will be in for an interview for another position… oh, but she could tell others. Let’s keep the Portabella mushroom sitting in manure all day. If this boss only knew what information others share with her, what everyone tells her, he’d probably dissolve into a puddle of water and dissipate into thin air. We can only hope!

In the period Delmira has been with this firm, she knows… who is looking for a new job… who dislikes  their manager with a passion… who doesn’t like who in the office… whose sorry they took a job with the company… who should not be trusted… who is happy and who is sad;  and who is lactose intolerant and whose not.  She could go on forever, but why, she doesn’t share this information, there’s no email covering the subject, and she has no intention of sharing it with anyone in the future. Can you imagine that her boss actually quizzes staff and visitors as to what she said during their conversation? This is why people feel comfortable talking to her. Her boss can play out every scenario of the What If’s… Shoulda… Coulda… Woulda’s… and end up training a new receptionist in the paranoia ways of greeting visitors. Instead of greeting people with… Hello, how can I help you? We were expecting you. Here, I have already registered you to save time, please sign here. Or, please, have a cup of coffee, you may have a couple of minute wait… This is the scenario when the receptionist is informed and prepared.

Delmira has gotten her bow out, and she’s sharpening her arrowheads, but she’s not claiming to be CUPID… I think the company needs to hire a California Valley Girl and be satisfied with the results. A CVA wouldn’t know how to ask a question or remember the answer, so this would be a safe hire don’t you think? After all, the receptionist position is easy, it doesn’t take any brains, and they’re easily replaced. Hence, there is always a CVA available to start tomorrow.

Should she share all the thank you notes she receives from guests and vendors thanking her for making their visit a pleasure… I personally think it is wiser for her to keep the notes, so she always knows the majority enjoyed her presence and style.

Looking for that company who will appreciate Delmira.. Color her gone from this job, it’s just a matter of time… They won’t have this Portabella to kick around much longer.

The Boomerang Manager… Get Out Your Crystal Ball, You’re Going To Need It

While this manager isn’t mean, he/she is never through covering all the ‘would’ve and should’ve’ situations, and always comes back with one more question or suggestion.  Just when you think you have finished all your work for the day…here comes the boomerang with one more project, one more itsy-bitsy task, one more thought.  You really need to plan to leave an hour early each day, therefore, after the boomerang is through, you’ll really be finished for the day, and on time.

This type of manager is more annoying than troublesome, but you can turn this into a mind game.  After you have worked for someone with this style, you can predict, project, and plan for these last-minute inconveniences, but the boomerang will always have one more.  Hewlett-Packard had an ad campaign that I disliked with a passion called the ‘What If.’  What if this… What if that… What if I don’t care?  This is exactly how to handle the boomerang, think of all the ‘What if’ situations and eventually, there won’t be last-minute details looming over you.  You’ll have covered all the ‘What If’ questions in his/her mind, and the boomerang will have relaxed and stopped worrying about those annoying little details.

I did go so far as to bring in a crystal ball for my desk, just to paint a clear picture of what was happening.  Yes, I do go to extremes at times to make my point.  Some boomerangs wouldn’t think it was funny, but luckily my boomerang did. If you think of this as a mind game, you’ll be surprised at how quickly you can meet the mental challenge and have a little fun while doing it.