Imposter syndrome

[Andy in Germany]

Exactly.

You can't teach (anything) unless you're capable of understanding how something that you find easy might actually be difficult for other people to master.

Indeed. One thing I like about my job, is that I don't have to make people do what they aren't good at; I'm supposed to help them recognise what they are good at and then help them do that instead: Much better for everyone...

 

[Gunk]

I can't stand travelling around and going to meetings, and talking codswallop with other managers

I do wonder if these larger corporate organisations scrapped all meetings, conferences, one to ones, etc if there would actually be any noticeable difference on the bottom line. Most, I’m sure are a complete waste of time and money.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

Like a Director of IT we had at one place I used to work. It was said that he knew nothing about IT and couldn't direct

We had a Director of IT that was like that
before he was promoted, senior technicians had meetings about how to present things so Brian wouldn't shout at them about problems he had seen

after it was "how can we dumb this down enough so **** can understand it - or thinks he can"
(name redacted in case anyon on here realises who I mean!"

I actually knew a bloke who was a Peter Principal in reverse

He was a rubbish Systems Analyst
so he was promoted to Principal Systems Analyst - where is was still rubbish but the supervisory and admin bit kept him away from the front end where his incompetance was dangerous
then he was promoted to Project Leader and he was not too bad because he was mostly doing admin and stuff and by then I worked for him and we all just got on with it and let him do the admin and talk to HR
Then he was promoted to Project Manager where we started to be quite good


basically he was great at admin and keeping himself out of trouble


I realised how good he was at never being to blame when I realised that he was the ONLY IT manager who was not in the office for Y2K
he delegated it all to me!!

 

[richardfm]

We had a Director of IT that was like that
before he was promoted, senior technicians had meetings about how to present things so Brian wouldn't shout at them about problems he had seen

after it was "how can we dumb this down enough so **** can understand it - or thinks he can"
(name redacted in case anyon on here realises who I mean!"

I actually knew a bloke who was a Peter Principal in reverse

He was a rubbish Systems Analyst
so he was promoted to Principal Systems Analyst - where is was still rubbish but the supervisory and admin bit kept him away from the front end where his incompetance was dangerous
then he was promoted to Project Leader and he was not too bad because he was mostly doing admin and stuff and by then I worked for him and we all just got on with it and let him do the admin and talk to HR
Then he was promoted to Project Manager where we started to be quite good


basically he was great at admin and keeping himself out of trouble


I realised how good he was at never being to blame when I realised that he was the ONLY IT manager who was not in the office for Y2K
he delegated it all to me!!

We had one business analyst, called Bob. One of the IT Managers said to me "Bob is a great person to have in a meeting when a decision needs to be made, just do the opposite of what Bob says".

 

[Supersuperleeds]

We had one business analyst, called Bob. One of the IT Managers said to me "Bob is a great person to have in a meeting when a decision needs to be made, just do the opposite of what Bob says".

Our place is full of Bobs

 

[Webbo2]

Our place is full of Bobs

Shirley not Jimbob.
CUSM.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

We had one business analyst, called Bob. One of the IT Managers said to me "Bob is a great person to have in a meeting when a decision needs to be made, just do the opposite of what Bob says".

I can cope with that

The type Ihave a real problem with are the ones that say

"This is an emergency - this problem is MASSIVE
we need to sort it now"

then proceed to have a meeting that discusses it for the next 2 hours which ties up the people that can sort it
rather than identifying the popel who can sort it and giving them the freedom to do it

Best management I have seen was a project leader when I was just of the programming training course

there was a massive problem
there were 3/4 programmers that could work out what was wrong and sort it
I was just about good enough to help with the simple stuff

the Project leader got a desk and dragged it to just inside the computer room door and sat down at it
ANyone came to the door was intercepted by him and given an update
and he answered any question

BUT NO-ONE GOT IN

he just asked for an update when possible

and let the workers get on with it

 

[Drago]

I do wonder if these larger corporate organisations scrapped all meetings, conferences, one to ones, etc if there would actually be any noticeable difference on the bottom line. Most, I’m sure are a complete waste of time and money.

Certainly in the dibble the meetings rarely did anything to improve the service to the public. Indeed, from what I could see they existed solely to allow the sociopaths that had achieved higher rank to be able to bully those of a lower rank in front of everyone. Real grown up stuff.

I once was ordered to provide a report to the Superintendo as to why I was absent from one particular meeting. My report read...

I was absent from yesterday's ZYZ meeting because I was not on duty that day.

Thats how well some senior managers had their finger on the pulse.

 

[Andy in Germany]

Best management I have seen was a project leader when I was just of the programming training course
...
the Project leader got a desk and dragged it to just inside the computer room door and sat down at it
ANyone came to the door was intercepted by him and given an update
and he answered any question
...
and let the workers get on with it

Simple, effective, and probably did more for "team building" than a weekend of silly games. This is something we will be looking at in our seminar: by protecting people doing a job and letting them get on with it, we communicate that we trust them, and lo, and behold, they tend to do an even better job.

Unfortunately my current upper manager, from what in Germany is often called the Teppich Bereich, or "carpeted area" could be an example of the Peter Principle. He is a bit of a micro manager, and has a habit of getting a daft idea and telling us we need to do it, and quickly.

The current Big Idea is to hang the new E-Bikes in the storage by their front wheel. I did point out that those bikes are generally 10-20kg, and several if us have back issues, but his response was the German equivalent of "Nah, It'll be fine." My manager just laughed and said afterwards. "Leave him a bit, he'll soon forget about it".

On the other hand, I'd really like to eventually manage a new workshop for the organisation in Rottenburg, so we can offer the same services to clients in that town, but given my administrative skills I think that could end up being an example of the Peter Principle in action...

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

Simple, effective, and probably did more for "team building" than a weekend of silly games. This is something we will be looking at in our seminar: by protecting people doing a job and letting them get on with it, we communicate that we trust them, and lo, and behold, they tend to do an even better job.

Unfortunately my current upper manager, from what in Germany is often called the Teppich Bereich, or "carpeted area" could be an example of the Peter Principle. He is a bit of a micro manager, and has a habit of getting a daft idea and telling us we need to do it, and quickly.

The current Big Idea is to hang the new E-Bikes in the storage by their front wheel. I did point out that those bikes are generally 10-20kg, and several if us have back issues, but his response was the German equivalent of "Nah, It'll be fine." My manager just laughed and said afterwards. "Leave him a bit, he'll soon forget about it".

On the other hand, I'd really like to eventually manage a new workshop for the organisation in Rottenburg, so we can offer the same services to clients in that town, but given my administrative skills I think that could end up being an example of the Peter Principle in action...

My company didn't go in for the silly games concept of team building
for which I am very grateful

I also spent most of my time there, working in an area where the managers saw what you did and listened to you
and only judged you on what you did and not on how good you looked
and where good enough to see the difference

it did mean that you had to take responsibility and get stuff done and done properly
and tell people the real problems and not the politically correct ones

but it was a good place to work

i was once banned from a meeting with senior people from other departments because I was too likely to tell them they were talking bollocks

I took that as a compliment