From my experience there are two kinds of managers. The quiet gentle manager and the brash braggadocios one. These are the extemes, but seems to cover the entire spectrum that I’ve worked under.
Taken as is, I’m not sure either is a better manager than the other, but when you factor in the same leadership skills, I’ll take the quiet gentle one everytime. I mean, who needs all that drama?
What’s your experience?
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5 responses so far ↓
1 Dave J. (64 comments.) // Aug 24, 2006 at 8:39 am
(If I had a mic on my work PC, I’d provide and audio comment on this one, as it would be easier.)
Where the ‘quiet gentle’ part goes bad is that there is a lack of communication of enthusiasm/motivation.
Big Picture Guy recently said: “People left to themselves will do their best. They should be given the training, the tools and the opportunities to prove it.”
So he seems to side with you. Unfortunately, ‘quiet gentle’ usually also includes other poor communication, including lack of specific expectations and goals. And a lack of engagement by those underneath. (Not that the brash one is necessarily any better in these regards.)
I guess part of the question is what is the difference between brash and enthusiastic!
2 Larry Hendrick (3 comments.) // Aug 24, 2006 at 8:50 am
Thanks for the comment Dave. I probably should have defined a little better. From my experience, the gentle quiet is the ‘coach’ and the brash is the ‘bully.’ My phrase “same leadership skills” probably isn’t the correct wording, but I meant they were skilled alike with the only difference being their style, coach or bully. I could have made that clearer.
3 Dave J. (64 comments.) // Aug 24, 2006 at 9:04 am
Gotcha. My mind skipped right to personal experiences with each type when framing my response.
4 Starbucker (4 comments.) // Aug 24, 2006 at 12:42 pm
I’ll take the coach every time Larry - I’d call it “inconspicuous passionate positive engagement”. Not really quiet, just behind the scenes, letting his or her staff do the shining. When there’s too much noice folks have a tendancy to cover their ears. All the best.
5 Larry Hendrick // Aug 24, 2006 at 3:14 pm
Starbucker, that was where my mind was when I wrote the post and asked the question. As you can see from the above comment from Dave, I could have stated it clearer, but, yeah, I’m with the coach, too.
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