Throughout the years I have had intense discussions with managers about the most productive style to get the result they are after. It has been extremely difficult to convince many of them that the dominating, forceful approach in counterproductive.
A definitive book on the subject was written by authors, Adorno, Frenkel-Brunswick, Levinson & Sanford, called The Authoritarian Personality.
Here is a place where you can take a test to see where your personality is: (from a dating site, but interesting.)
I really think that the managers of today need to continually access themselves concerning some of the traits mentioned here. It could be that you are the major problem of why things aren’t being done the way they should.
Here are some of the qualities identified in those who have dominating personalities:
They take their anger out on someone safe.
Because they feel weak, authoritarian personalities believe it is important to have a powerful leader and to be part of a powerful group.
They can't trust people.
Guard against dangerous ideas.
There are of course many more things that could be mentioned here. The key thing to take away from this is that when we manage, it’s all about people and how you treat them.
I know that there are some employees out there that will totally try to push your buttons, and try to get you to respond and use authority in a way that they can use to justify their own bad attitude and lack of concern to contribute to the success of the company.
Yet, I am more referring to those employees that have good attitudes and try hard, and you still come down hard on them. To work on a softer approach to those who want to be with your company, will bring far better results than heavy-handed measures.
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