By Des Fitzgerald
I remember my first real job with an American Multinational.
As I entered on my first day, the CEO met me at the reception and said 'I want to see you in action - come and join my meeting with the other managers'. WOW what a baptism of fire.
After a few pleasant introductions the meeting began in earnest. I was amazed and allthough I had some great previous experience, the flew through the agenda. However after a while I noticed that the meeting was getting stuck. Circular arguments, protestations of greatness and lots of 'he said, she said' arguments. As I looked around the room I noticed how everyone was getting heated except for the CEO.
The meeting continued like this for a while and then the CEO stood up and said 'we're getting nowhere here, I'm off and call be back when you have agreed a plan'. I was amazed was this a way of showing his authority or was it a way of getting managers to make decisions together - some weird way of empowering staff?'. At the time I concluded that it was the right approach to shake things up.
Nowadays, I suppose with a more mature recollection, I see his motives as more to do with arrogance than vision - he may think otherwise!
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---ABOUT THE AUTHOR---
Des Fitzgerald BA, MSC, MBS is the founder and CEO of Oak Training.
