Managers

Managers seem to be a necessary evil of pretty much any type of company larger than a few people.  Management is made up of so many things, but one key aspect is decent leadership.  It’s difficult to define leadership in a context where it is universally effective, but it’s quite easy to define bad leadership.  Unfortunately, although I’ve seen some very good leadership, I’ve also seen some which is absolutely dire, yet these people often don’t seem to be aware of it.

The added complexity comes in when you have such a diverse team or workforce which you need to manage; people respond to the same situation in different ways and certain styles of management work better in certain industries or size of companies.  What works well in one company can be highly frustrating in another; a good leader will see this and adapt their style, bad ones will plough on regardless.  

After wondering what traits make a good leader, I ended up watching videos on this subject on Ted.com.  I love this site, but I'll profess my love and reasons for it in another blog post.  Anyway, after watching one particular video, I came to the realisation that I don't like to be "lead", I work my hardest when I'm "inspired".


This video by Simon Sinek really seems to verbalise what motivates me.  If you get me to believe in what you're doing, I'll back you to the hilt, if you don't engage with me, you won't get any loyalty and I won't be intrinsically motivated.