The Economist‘s blog has some interesting data from a study of the effect of personality traits on income.
For example, being neurotic is correlated with lower wages for women, but is not significant for men.
And…
It does not pay to be the nice guy at work. Being agreeable is correlated with lower earnings for both genders. That may be because being agreeable is associated with being passive.
Where’s Kelley Eskridge when you need her? The world clearly needs better management practices.
Hah. I could definitely help them with that.
But I’m not at all surprised to read it. It’s still true that many people think that the verbal whip is mightier than the connective process of actual communication. But really, the verbal whip is much less effective, and it’s a much more frightened and lazy choice than doing the communication work.
What’s really interesting is that people with decent communication skills are generally seen as nice. People with *great* communication skills are seen as calm, fair *and* tough when it’s needed.
It’s not that hard to go from decent to great. It just takes practice.
Me, I measure the “toughness” of a manager by her willingness and ability to speak honestly, with respect, with full sharing of information, and without apparent discomfort (nervous apologies, hedging, yadda yadda). A manager who can do those things will never have a problem keeping great people engaged in hard times.
I appreciate your support as always, Cheryl. The revolution happens one person at a time!
Ha! Kelley-summoning for beginners clearly works. I think I should now go into the self-help book business. “Demonology for Dummies”. Not only would it help a lot of people, it would also get the Fundies excited, thereby ensuring massive sales.
Seriously though, it seems to me that what is actually required is self-confidence. I’ll never be a good manager because I’ll never be able to believe that people will do what I ask them to do. But I suspect that the people who “manage” by yelling have the same problem. Then again, I tend to assume that people who ooze self-confidence are almost certainly wrong (Tony Blair being a prime example).
Complicated stuff, this management.