The Cranky Middle Manager Show #312 The Future of the MBA Ken Starkey
The Cranky Middle Manager Show #68 Becoming a Successful Manager with Bob Parkinson
Posted on 27. Oct, 2006 by Wayne in Podcast
The Cranky Middle Manager Show #068
0:00 Today we talk with Bob Parkinson, author of the new book Mottoes for Managers and the classic Becoming a Successful Manager. Before we get started though, someone said something in a blog post about my show being more of a humor show than a business show. Do you think that’s true? Why does that bother me so much? Post to the blog and tell me what you think! This is learning, not the priesthood….or is it?
3:02 This show is dedicated to Thomas Alexandre Dumas…. General, War Hero and Former Slave.
4:39 The quote of the week is from Bob’s book on Mottoes for Managers AND Â Francois De La Rouchefoucauld
5:39 Welcome Dr. Bob Parkinson, co-author of “Becoming a Successful Manager- Moving from Managing Yourself to Managing Others”. There are 3 things a manager has to be-
1) a Teacher
2) a Counselor
3) a Gardener….yes my bad joke aside, a gardener. Bob explains.
9:26 Managers create the culture- which is a result of attitude and behaviors. The secret is past tense vs. future tense….
14:18Â Â AÂ lot of new managers struggle with the concept of listening effectively. This isn’t the same as being good at piling up boxes….
17:36 Gardeners have to prune, and that isn’t always pretty, but on-going communication makes it less traumatic- to both parties.
26:17 Bob likes to use quotes to illustrate points about management….. who would ever think of that huh? His new book is full of good stuff.
29;40 Bob offers a couple of resources beside his books. One is “If Harry Potter Ran General Electric” and it’s cohort “If Aristotle Ran General Motors” by Tom Morris.
He also suggests Kiss, Bow or Shake Hands- How to Do Business in Over 60 Countries
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Wayne- Perhaps it is user error but my download of the podcast stops at minute 21:48. The size of the file is around 7.6MB. I also noticed that the title on my player (again it might be my player) has show #67. By the way don’t let the weasels get you down. You are entertaining and educational. I had too many profs that were very smart but put me to sleep 5 minutes into the class (never mind our continuing education classes). Roger
On the humour issue.
I think it’s just a feature of the belief that has crept into some people’s thinking that if something is serious then any form of humore connected with it is inappropriate (and isn’t inappropriate becoming a standard all-purpose put-down for those who know they want to criticise but can’t think of a meaningful critique).
Don’t let the wowsers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wowser) tell you that humour is a bad thing. Stan Cross knew how humans really deal with adversity (http://lambiek.net/artists/c/cross_stan.htm) “For gors sake, stop laughing, this is serious”