Sadly, regarding women mentoring women, I can recall too many instances in my own professional life that mirrored Kerry Hannon’s experience, as she described it for Forbes yesterday when commenting on a new LinkedIn survey. The survey shows that too many women are not being or have not been mentored by other women. Hannon attributes the problem not only to the fact that too few women hold senior positions, but also to the fact that the behaviour of women executives too often ranges from declining to support other women to outright slapping other women down. Hannon writes: “They were very protective of their much fought for status. Heels high, nails sharp.” What are your past experiences when you’ve tried to enlist other women as mentors?
Showing posts with label bad managers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bad managers. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Monday, January 24, 2011
Manager Know Thyself
Last spring, after “The New York Observer” posted its congratulations to a big-time TV producer on her retirement and plans to launch a 2nd career as a guidance counsellor, they received over 200 comments on line. Most came from her former employees, claiming the story was bogus and that she was a “foul-mouthed, cliquish bully”, to quote “Psychology Today” reporter Carlin Flora.
Flora reports: “In his new book, “Good Boss, Bad Boss: How to Be the Best … and Learn from the Worst,” Robert Sutton, Ph.D., catalogs [the] disproportionate effect that managers have on well-being. A meta-analysis found, for example, that ‘about 75 percent of the workforce reports that their immediate supervisor is the most stressful part of their job.’
"For the majority of managers, who presumably want to fall on the heart-attack-reducing side of the scale, Sutton shares a key insight: Good bosses know themselves. And yet, just being in power is a deterrent to self-awareness, making it especially difficult for leaders to correctly ascertain the impact their behaviors and policies have on their employees. ‘It turns out that followers, peers, superiors, and customers consistently provide better information about a boss’s strengths, weaknesses, and quirks than the boss herself,’ Sutton writes. …
"For the majority of managers, who presumably want to fall on the heart-attack-reducing side of the scale, Sutton shares a key insight: Good bosses know themselves. And yet, just being in power is a deterrent to self-awareness, making it especially difficult for leaders to correctly ascertain the impact their behaviors and policies have on their employees. ‘It turns out that followers, peers, superiors, and customers consistently provide better information about a boss’s strengths, weaknesses, and quirks than the boss herself,’ Sutton writes. …
“[He] suggests they consciously beak out of the power bubble by asking [these info sources] for direct input and feedback.”
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