Media Alert: Your Business Blogger(R) Interviewed for The Washington Post

Your Business Blogger(R) was interviewed on a series of articles on Bad Managers, Maybe (Gulp) The Problem Is You and in Think Your Boss Is Bad? Some Managers Can’t Manage. What to Do If You’ve Got a Boss Who Only Makes Things Worse. By Tara Swords, Special to The Washington Post, Sunday, September 28, 2008

Jack Yoest says many people haven’t learned how to be good workers.

In my conversation with Tara, my concern was not so much with mis-managers as it was with subordinates,

“Jack Yoest, president of Management Training of DC, takes a harder line on the boss-employee relationship and says it’s the employee’s job to relieve the boss’s anxieties, not the other way around.

“If you have a nervous, micromanaging boss who’s always in your hair, he probably doesn’t trust you,” Yoest says. “The employee hasn’t sold the boss on his ability to get anything done, and I’d say, most of the time, it’s the employee’s fault.” “

We talk about leadership but not follower-ship. And we teach neither,

Yoest says most people haven’t been taught the mechanics of being a good employee. Rather than insisting that managers empower employees, Yoest urges employees to convince the boss that they are dependable and can act as the boss would.

The goal should be to go from an employee who does nothing unless told, or who is always asking the boss what to do, to an employee who recommends a course of action and, after gaining the boss’s trust, acts on the boss’s behalf.

And the end result of being a good subordinate who can anticipate, adapt and learn is to give the employee more control over the timing and content of his workload,

“When you’ve reached that level, you’re at a whole new level of job security” because you’re behaving like a leader, Yoest says. And that puts you one step closer to being the leader .

Not everyone aspires to management. But everyone wants independence and respect at work.

Read the entire story here. And check out the comments.

Thank you (foot)notes,

Caution! Sales Pitch Follows: Check your calendar for Wednesday, October 8th at 4pm in Northern Virginia. I’m giving an open seminar on Solutions to Your Management Problems. No Charge, but registration is required. Email me for info.

Your Business Blogger(R) is an Adjunct Professor of Management at the Northern Virginia Community College.

YouTube syllabus Here,