The Way of the Wall Street Warrior

CHAPTER 20Manage Your Way out of a Paper Bag: Get Others to Do Your Dirty Work

Investment bankers are renowned for being terrible managers. Belittling juniors, working them to exhaustion, and providing inadequate guidance are all par for the course. Wall Street, of course, doesn't have a monopoly on crappy bosses. Main Street is full of the same ineptitude. By now, you might be thinking that I must be one of them. In fact, almost everyone who has worked for me directly thought I was a pretty darn good manager and mentor. Don't believe me? Check out my public recommendations on LinkedIn or my website. Once you get over your disbelief, I'll share some of my secrets, including how to get those you're managing to labor hard, smart, and effectively while still maintaining comradery among your team.

Everyone knows that getting the other cave dwellers to do your bidding is among life's greatest challenges. This is especially true in the workplace, where the skills you need to get your team to pull a few all-nighters on a low probability pitch are the same as those your ancestors needed to encourage their Neanderthal brethren to lift the boulders while they feasted off the latest spoils in the nicest corner of the cave. Don't feel guilty. Every great master has a team to do the grunt work.

The joke (on you, of course) is that they don't teach what you really need to know in any school I've ever attended. Sure, there are entire university departments, HR training, and organizational ...