How would you deal with a challenge to your authority? What should you do if one of your most able managers openly criticise your way of doing things? When does health debate become undermining dissent?
A former manager once started a conversation with “Who‘s in charge of this team”. I knew it was a rhetorical question but I felt it was best to confirm she was. On another occasion a different boss said “you obviously feel very strongly about this, is it a resigning matter?”It wasn’t. Now I know I can be very opinionated and sometimes abrasive in the way I put my arguments but I have always considered myself easy to manage because I have never tried to undermine my manager with a view to getting their job, I have always accepted my manager’s right to make the wrong decision and once it has been made clear to me that the decision has been made I have always don my best to implement it. So for me expressing decent within the meeting is all part of healthy debate so I can’t complain if my managers challenge me in this way. However health debate becomes undermining dissent when you go public. So I am with President Obama on this if you publically criticise your boss, their abilities and their decisions you can expect to be sacked.
So why would any ambitious and intelligent manager put themselves in such a position? In my experience it is usually an indication of a dysfunctional team where individuals do not respect each other, are unable to work together, don’t like each other and can’t be bothered to hide it. The leader is unable to impose their authority the result is internal conflict and high levels of frustration which eventually become more public. Or it is simply a matter of integrity the individual feels so strongly about an issue that they feel is so important that they go public to test out whether there is support for their view and offer to resign if there isn’t.
Of course your average manager with a mortgage to pay and kids to put through university can’t afford the grand gesture so keeps quiet and looks for another job. Grand gestures are for the financially independent and those in senior positions who know that they will get a good pay off.
Blair McPherson was until recently a senior manager with a large local authority. He is author of People Management in a harsh financial climate published by www.russellhouse.co.uk