There are at least two basic management styles that I know about. It happens that they are diametrical opposites of each other, and the debate continues as to which works better.
One is the style of setting an example or the do-as-I-do style. The manager establishes precedent by setting basic rules and procedures and then following those rules himself. If, for example, he expects his employees to be at work on time every day, he should be at his desk at 7:45 a.m. every day. Conversely, if he continually wanders in at 8:15 or 8:25 a.m. every day, how long do you suppose it will be before his employees are starting to be five or 10 minutes late also? If he continually takes two-hour lunches, how long will it be before his employees’ one-hour lunch starts to stretch to one hour and 10 minutes, one hour and 15 minutes? Similarly, if the boss keeps ignoring basic procedures, how long will it take for the system to break down as his people ignore them also?
The other management style is perhaps the one you first heard from your mother when you asked her why you had to do something. It’s called the “Because I said so” style. (It is also sometimes referred to as the “Do as I say, not as I do” style) In this instance, management establishes rules for everyone else except for themselves. You must come in on time every day, coffee breaks last 10 minutes — and not one minute more. Lunchtime is one hour for you; perhaps two or more for me. You must park in stalls 17 thru 165; I’ll park wherever I damn well please. Etc.
Having been both an employee and a manager in my working career, I can certainly tell you which style worked for me. Any so-called manager of an organization who thinks he or she can run it on a “because I said so” basis is walking dangerously close to creating an ineffective organization of resentful employees or worse yet — an exodus of those same people as they move on to more appreciative and satisfying employment. (I labeled him the “so-called”manager because in reality, he is no manager at all. Rather, he is just the guy who happens to be in charge at the moment.)
A similar and related management style is the one in which the manager solicits the opinions of his people (workers, volunteers, staff, whatever you want to call them) and then goes ahead with what he had already decided to do in the first place. Although he may think he is getting away with that approach, I assure you — from an employee’s point of view — that he is not. Employees (or volunteers in the case of nonprofit organizations) may not always be as smart as the boss but they are not stupid either. They soon pick up on the management style of this type of boss and their response reflects it. Ask their opinions and then continually ignore them; it won’t be long before no suggestions or ideas are forthcoming from them. Why bother? Bring the boss my idea for some sort of improvement and have him ignore, ridicule or put impossible or unreasonable demands on me — how long will he expect me to bring him any more ideas? And how many thousands of dollars was that one idea worth that I didn’t bring him because of his superior, judgmental attitude?
But that’s just my opinion.
— Paul Burri is an entrepreneur, inventor, columnist, engineer and iconoclast. He is not in the advertising business but he is a small business counselor with the Santa Barbara chapter of Counselors to America’s Small Business-SCORE. He can be reached at pburri@west.net.