Managing "Tigers" Increases Company Productivity; Communications, Fitting In, Are Keys To Personal Success

In this world of changing organizational structures, highly individualized approaches to problems and situations and challenges to perceived company traditions, it is very difficult for managers to thrive as well as manage others.

This problem can be particularly acute in growing companies where highly touted, valued, talented individuals are building a new enterprise.

Jeswald Salacuse writes about managing such a group in his new book, “Leading Leaders: How to Manage Smart, Talented, Rich and Powerful People.”  While putting together and managing such a team requires finesse, firmness and leadership, such an amalgamation of talent often leads to pay compression at senior and lower levels.

Salacuse argues that while salary and bonuses are motivators for these individuals, they also tend to build teams that often require higher salaries than other employees.  The result is an organization with a skewed workforce salary structure that will eventually lead to morale problems.

At the same time, many individuals either new to organizations or struggling to maintain their place in a changing environment may find comfort in Marilyn Puder-York’s new book, “The Office Survival Giude.”

The long-time professional coach provides steps to improving inter-office relationships including such suggestions as:

• Communicate artfully and with discretion by diffusing other people’s defensiveness and rarely, if ever, get into the habit of spreading gossip.
  
  
• Remain self-aware and know your blind spots, curb your emotions and don’t be impulsive in your behavior.
  
  
• Practice the art of detached engagement by controlling the impact of work on your self-esteem and separating your ego from what it takes to perform.

Above all, she seems to say, fit in with the office culture.

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