Covert and Overt Management Styles
Tom at the wonderfully titled “HR for the leader in you” has written of another example of traditional, covert management styles that clearly don’t cover the whole piece;
A man came up to me after my speech on leadership the other day and said, “I work for a company that does just the opposite of what you call for in your presentation.” That is not all he told me, but that is all I will repeat here. The ideas I put forward are so basic and so humble that it amazes me each time I get the reaction I did from the aforementioned gentleman.
I might add that the gentleman works for a very public company (one that you would all know), which is in trouble. They have cut, cut, cut and negotiated give-backs; it is not pretty. His descriptions were troubling not because they don’t agree with mine, but because the company has failed at managing the change that is so necessary. Instead of wanting to help get his company back to profitabily, this employee made me feel that he wants to see it go under.
This example makes me think of an earlier post we wrote on Organisational Culture, Transformation and the use of Role Models.
