The aggressive style of management which doesn't listen to people or engage them is not the way forward and the so called 'softer' skills in management are much more important for achieving real and meaningful change for leaders/managers in both improving the working environment for their employees and in reforming service delivery in the face of the huge challenges the recession has brought about.
For the public sector, we are seeing a shift in attitudes of academics, and the host of various gurus, workplace psychologists, entrepreneurs and senior public service managers. It was an interesting conference that reassured me somewhat that my own working style is along the right track and I don't have to be a mini Hitler to make an impact. I've always preferred a much more inclusive and engaged management style but that's not what we've been taught is the 'right' thing to do. Ad astra per aspera
hitler and Mussolini are remembered for strating disastrous wars that wrecked their countries. Thatcher was good at destroying things and nowadays even her own party are trying to walk back her "achievements". But did she "build" anyting except an environment where British interests were sacrified for the shallow veneration of a fiscal model that only blew bubbles ?
Leadership is about more than shouting loudly and getting things doen. It's about getting the right things done in such a way they last. Clement Attlee was no dictator, but he created the post-War economic model that served the UK well up till the moment thatcher trashed it. That's management.
As for FDR, no dictator he. Again, his work didn't disintegrate, it had to be actively vandalised.
No, this right wing authoritarian hankering for strong men / nanny is symptomatic of their infantile inability to deal with difference. Mrs Thatcher infamously would question her advisors about appointments, "Is he one of us ?". their desire to inflict their opinions on others and inability to hear criticism as anything other than hostility is immature.
Bullying may get things done, but that which only exists on force of personality cannot survive a change of person. keep to the Fen Causeway
