A Little Bit of Power

A friend told me the other day about his new boss. The boss is stamping his authority by generally be pretty critical and wanting to change just about everything they do in the office; but the thing that rattles my friend is the painstaking corrections his boss makes to every report he writes. For example, if the sentence is: “the cat ran up the tree”, this is changed to “up the tree the cat ran”. Go figure! But the worst thing about this is that the boss is downright nasty about the feedback; he emails my friend stating that the grammar, writing and so on is wrong/awful and copies the email to everyone in the company and their uncles. His one saving grace is that he hasn't used the 'bcc' yet!

One of the blogs I subscribe to is by Bob Sutton. Bob is a no nonsense guy – I enjoy his writing immensely and the “boss power issue” in the work place is something he alludes to – did I say allude!!! – often. Alludes is definitely the wrong word - he actually has a section on his blog which covers such items as "Tips for Surviving an Asshole Infested Workplace" and a checklist to find out if your Future Boss is an Asshole. And in case you think Bob is a bit of a twit who uses faintly foul language – this is an excerpt from his bio:

Robert Sutton is Professor of Management Science and Engineering in the Stanford Engineering School, where he is Co-Director of the Center for Work, Technology, an active member of the Stanford Technology Ventures Program, and a cofounder of the new Hasso Plattner Institute of Design. (my comment - One of his books is called: The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn’t.)

He has published his Work Manifesto on his blog, copied below, and it is really worth reading. (My personal favorites: points 7, 8, 9 and 10) And now how is this for a challenge: can you add to this manifesto or make up your own list? Let's build our own manifest. Email your comments to me.

Bob Sutton’s Work Manifesto - 15 Things I Believe

1. Sometimes the best management is no management at all -- first do no harm!
2. Indifference is as important as passion.
3. In organizational life, you can have influence over others or you can have freedom from others, but you can't have both at the same time.
4. Saying smart things and giving smart answers are important. Learning to listen to others and to ask smart questions is more important.
5. Learn how to fight as if you are right and listen as if you are wrong: It helps you develop strong opinions that are weakly held.
6. You get what you expect from people. This is especially true when it comes to selfish behaviour; unvarnished self-interest is a learned social norm, not an unwavering feature of human behaviour.
7. Getting a little power can turn you into an insensitive self-centred jerk.
8. Avoid pompous jerks whenever possible. They not only can make you feel bad about yourself, chances are that you will eventually start acting like them.
9. The best test of a person's character is how he or she treats those with less power.
10. The best single question for testing an organization’s character is: What happens when people make mistakes?
11. The best people and organizations have the attitude of wisdom: The courage to act on what they know right now and the humility to change course when they find better evidence.
12. The quest for management magic and breakthrough ideas is overrated; being a master of the obvious is underrated.
13. Err on the side of optimism and positive energy in all things.
14. It is good to ask yourself, do I have enough? Do you really need more money, power, prestige, or stuff?
15. Jim Maloney is right: Work is an overrated activity

His blog is: http://bobsutton.typepad.com/