management in this sort of organization needs to go about setting up the strategic direction, project expectations, a willing ear to really listen when teams report difficulty and a willing hand to resolve same. management must also amply reward the teams for good behavior and results.

wow, now that would be a great place to work wouldn’t it?

What people want from work today, I think, is personal growth. So if managers are going to add value, I think it can’t just be about productivity. A manager is there to give the worker what the worker needs to succeed. And what workers need in order to stay at a job is personal growth, so a manager should foster that.

A manager can be a coach, a mentor, a sounding board. All the things we would love to get from a friend but don’t usually have friends who are up to the task. In this regard, a manager would need to be very hands on in a way that helps us to be better people – not just better workers.

I know: Big challenge. But at least it’s something to aim for.

Penelope

I

To Audrey’s point, it all comes down to being responsible for getting things done, but I increasingly see companies staffed at the senior with successful type A personalities, who often don’t need to be there to pay the bills. Perhaps they’ve had entrepreneurial success elsewhere, but very often that entrepreneurial drive manifests itself entirely differently when said entrepreneur has to fit into a hierarchy rather than lead the overall vision and strategy for the organization. It’s not that I as a lapsed and then reborn entrepreneur can’t get things done, but these things have to have been my idea in the first place otherwise I feel frustrated and backed into a corner. Selfish and arrogant, perhaps, but true nonetheless.