The Savvy Manager: Which Types Have You Seen: Superhero or Monkey Tosser?

By Mike Bohlmann

August 1, 2008 —  (Page 1 of 3)

There is no shortage of those among our peers and employees with a lack of social skills or good judgment. We need to watch out for the traits of poor social behavior or bad judgment in ourselves and our employees. These are just a few sets of bad behaviors that I have noticed in meetings, conferences and personal interactions over the last 10 years.

The Fourth Grader
Do you remember back in fourth grade how there was that one kid who was a lot smarter than the rest of the class? Remember how much that kid gloated whenever he could manage to show the teacher to be wrong? This type of person usually shows up at conferences or in training sessions focused on trying to find a flaw with the presented material. Once found, the know-it-all will ask a question to try to catch the speaker in his or her mistake. How can we avoid this trap? Realize that no speaker is going to give a perfect presentation. Instead of making a straw man of one specific point, think about the broader subject and ask a question that might resolve your concern with the narrower issue.

Tech Tunnel Vision
Everyone has his or her favorite tech of the moment. Right now my favorite tech is Drupal, a Web content-management system. If I were to suffer from tech tunnel vision, Drupal would be the solution I pitched to every Web content-management issue I came across.

The problem with tech tunnel vision is that no technology can be a one-size-fits-all solution. In the case of Web content-management, what if a site was going to have a blog emphasis? Wouldn’t WordPress be another option? Before coming up with a solution, be sure you spend time thinking about the problem and asking driving questions to be sure you have as much understanding as possible.

Shields Up
Sometimes when things are rough, it can be hard to be objective about obstacles we come across. Someone who always has their shields up will immediately get defensive when someone comes to them with an issue. “I keep getting messages about my e-mail being over quota,” says the user. The IT worker with their shields up responds, “It’s not my fault. I don’t have the budget to increase storage for e-mail.” That’s not really taking a customer service approach.

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