Page 174 - Executive Warfare

EXECUTIVE W ARF ARE

the tennis courts when you really ought to be dealing with issues of
import.
It’s a very tricky balancing act that you have to master as you rise in an
organization. You can’t afford to be a person in a bubble, too removed
from your employees to grasp what’s happening around you. At the same
time, it should be clear to everyone below your direct reports that it is not
okay to bother you unnecessarily. That’s the message.
In higher management, you cannot leave your office door completely
open. You simply have to set up some barriers.

WHAT IS THIS STRANGE RELATIONSHIP?
The most important barriers you have to set up between yourself and the
people you manage are social and emotional.
This is directly counter to one of the most common workplace clichés:
People who work well together are like families. If your idea of yourself as
a boss is somehow to be the head of the
family or the respected older brother or

IN HIGHER sister, I have one piece of advice for you:
MANAGEMENT, YOU Get a life. Marry somebody; make a
CANNOT LEAVE family of your own.
YOUR OFFICE DOOR And if you are in any way like those
COMPLETELY OPEN. desperate bosses Jared Sandberg wrote
YOU SIMPLY HAVE about in the Wall Street Journal who
TO SET UP SOME insist that their employees “friend”
BARRIERS. them on Web sites like MySpace or
Facebook, you really need to find an old
address book. Spend more time with
your college roommates, who actually did think you were hilarious, before
you had any power whatsoever.
Just admit to yourself that once you hit higher management, the peo-
ple who work for you are not going to love you. They may very well not

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