Last month, we started a conversation about how our ability to effectively recover after a difficult event is a critical organizational and personal challenge.
Last month, I started to tell a story of a long-ago experience that produced a set of very durable and valuable human relations lessons that have stuck with me throughout my life.
I am fortunate that I get to interact with firefighters in seminars and meetings and listen to how they feel about their work, their career, and their organization.
A timely management topic we started to discuss last month is how organizational boundaries are established, maintained, and revised-they pretty much establish the lane we all personally and occupationally "drive in" and describe what is acceptable behavior/performance as we go along in our lane.
We have recently been discussing how the basic capability of a boss connects to the effect of what that boss does and, just as critical, how he does it, particularly the way he treats others as they do their job.
In last month's column, we continued our discussion about how a boss personally uses the power that goes with his position. We included a fairly long list of what we called "power goofs."
Last month I related a story that involved a young cadet assigned as my airport chauffeur (after I taught a seminar in his department) telling me about his ongoing observations about his chief.
Last month, we talked about the effect of how bosses manage (or don't manage) their personal and positional power. This month, I am starting with a story that makes the power goof point better than any academic claptrap.
In our ongoing march through the vertically arranged performance activities that connect to a boss's capability level, we have covered attendance, appearance, and maintenance.