Improving Managerial Talent

30Quick coaching

Long before I knew anything about learning theory, I worked with a boss who habitually experimented, amongst his colleagues, with ways to handle tricky interpersonal situations. For instance, I recall him asking during the raging inflation of the 1970s ‘How do I start to tell the Managing Director that we need to raise salaries by 15 per cent?’ We would have then brainstormed a number of arguments that he could have used:

• Tell him that we are losing key staff.
• Tell him that we are in danger of having to make penalty payments for non-completion of contracts if we don’t recruit more engineers.
• Ask him if he’s heard about the threatened strike by our lorry drivers.
• Ask him if he’s thought by how much we will need to raise board ...