TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
I'm sure we can all do the "I had a bad manager" stories....
This actually happened, though (just before and just after I left the
company in question, a few years ago): a new manager came in, imposed a
micromanagement style on the department, verbally abused members of staff
for having low morale ("Look happy! Don't you realise how lucky you are? If
not for me you'd have lost your jobs!"), fired a needed temp worker for
griping, got a senior technical writer eased out by more-or-less legal means
for being "disloyal" and lacking "team spirit", didn't waste any time
learning about the technical side of the projects the department worked
on... and got promoted.
The directors and CEO considered all this activity to be signs of a
valuable, energetic leader, and all of the employees working under this
manager took quiet looks at what happened to anyone who considered their
technical skills a sufficiently valuable resource that they could afford to
speak their mind: they got the boot, and the other employees got the
message. It was the worst example that I know of at this company, but it was
typical of their attitude to employees and management: but it's a very
successful company.
The point is, real leaders are rare. The "Peter Principle" (everyone gets
promoted to his level of incompetence) is still in effect. The desire to
*own* is common enough: as Bruce Byfield pointed out in an earlier thread, a
CEO identifies with their company far more than an employee can or should.
The qualities that enable someone to build a successful business are not
necessarily the same qualities that make someone a leader.
Did anyone else happened to be following Philip Greenspun's disagreement
with the venture capitalists who now own a controlling interest in the
company Greenspun founded, ArsDigita? The disagreement has now been
resolved, so directing you to www.greenspun.com to read about it is
fruitless (part of the deal was that Greenspun's website about it got taken
down), but it seemed to me that Greenspun was acting like a bright guy with
a good idea who got on fine so long as he only had to interact with other
bright guys with good ideas: the VCs were behaving like typical managers:
neither side was showing much "leadership" - and yet both sides were
successful on their own terms.
Jane Carnall
-----Original Message-----
I agree. I lost a co-worker who was a great leader... he was pushed out by
managers who were threatened by his competence and leadership ability.
Luckily, they soon followed, but they're still out there making someone
else's life miserable.
~~~~~
>>> "Brierley, Sean" <Sean -at- Quodata -dot- Com> 08/14/01 07:59AM >>>
> "The true measure of leadership is influence -- nothing more, nothing
> less." -- John Maxwellgoo.
*** Deva(tm) Tools for Dreamweaver and Deva(tm) Search ***
Build Contents, Indexes, and Search for Web Sites and Help Systems
Available now at http://www.devahelp.com or info -at- devahelp -dot- com
A landmark hotel, one of America's most beautiful cities, and
three and a half days of immersion in the state of the art:
IPCC 01, Oct. 24-27 in Santa Fe. http://ieeepcs.org/2001/
---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as: archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot- Visit http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.
