Years ago, I was on the digital advisory board of a large newspaper company. We had four meetings per year, after which, we’d go for a board dinner. At one of these dinners, during a discussion about something or other, the Chair of the Board turned to me and said with great confidence, “You have a problem with authority”. I have no recollection of what I said to prompt his comment, but I do remember having a moment of clarity. He was right. In general, I didn’t trust that th

Sharon likes to vent. She works in a high-pressure job where deadlines are critical, and quality is imperative. And yet, it seems that her managers are determined to confound her progress at every turn. This drives Sharon nuts. And she likes to vent about it. She vents to her employees. She vents to her friends and family. She lets everyone know how annoyed she is. Everyone that is, but the managers making her life difficult. The company where Kyle works is launching a major

Pam knows exactly how things should be done. She also knows how her employees should act and how they should think. Truth be told, she even knows how they should feel, but she doesn’t usually talk about that. When her team doesn’t do, act, think and feel as she believes they should, she tries to set them straight. After all, if they don’t comply, chaos will ensue. Work won’t get done. Quality will drop and team cohesiveness will suffer. She’s the boss. She has the title and t