yes, that makes a lot of sense for me now. “Making people not feel minor” is perhaps the trait that I missed while reading through your article. Now that I think about it … perhaps this is something that is easy for your manager B. It might not even cost him/her any conscious thought. Easy for him/her to be a genius. Difficult for all others.

Thank you for your response and have a good time during your sabbatical.
Tobias

P.S. I like your writing style more than some “professional”-labeled styles .

In fact (meaning in my experience) manager B – the one who really seems to know everything better – was accepted by almost every person in the company as one of the smartest persons they ever met… And not (as you could understand it by reading my article) because he only thought so himself…

Well anyways I think you have a point there. So let me add another skill that manager Type B may need. Making people not feel minor – I guess that is what you are implying… Another skill that is not easyly found or developed by people of that kind (and I guess thats the point you’re making)… And is’nt that just another thing that makes it hard to be a genius!? So it all ends up to the basic point I was trying to make…

Thanks again Tobias for being interested in my article and digging into it so deep!

Any further comments are highly appreciated – best wishes from Bangkok,
Florian

congratulations for the well-written article. It’s a bit rough, but I believe that’s a good thing because it leads to others commenting on it. So I hope you don’t mind me posting a rough question …

How is manager B different from manager A? If he cannot find a better person for handling detailed work or if he believes that agreeing to a suggestion from the team means to sacrifice a good business decision … does that sound like a person who believes his team is not smart enough? Does it sound like a person who believes he actually knows it better? Does it sound like a person who looks at 100 people and only sees those that are not so smart like him? Manager A?

Anyway, Florian, it’s just a thought. The way manager B is described … it seems to me as if he judges his people from a higher level just like manager A is operating from a higher level. Manager B feels he sometimes needs to “overrule” his colleagues. I’m just thinking, didn’t he make his expectations clear in the first place? And how would honest constructive feedback be de-motivating for the team? Their seems to be a lot of negative emotions involved )) … even “hate”, which is a quite strong feeling.

As nothing has meaning per se except the meaning we give to it, such strong feelings, negative OR positive, often hint at one’s own shadow. Let’s search our feelings and perceptions …

Lg, Tobias

It was nice sharing your idea and experiences here. Please keep writing.

Best regards,
panya