I sometimes think my fertilizer guy might be doing too good of a job.
I have a fertilizer guy simply because I have no idea what chemicals to put down and when to put them down. I figured hiring some guy who knew what to do and when to do it would be a good idea. Also, he is a friend of one of my drinking buddies and he used to join us at the "after work" getherings. He talked me into it in a bar one night after several adult beverages
Turns out that knowing what to do and when to do it makes for a lawn that grows really, really fast.
⧫
Over the course of my career, I worked under several easily-identified "management styles".
There is the "Set goals and let the people do the work" style where a manager says "We need to accomplish XYZ. How long will it take you to do that?" You tell them how long it will take, establish some benchmarks and the only thing they want from you during the duration of the project are progress updates and to let them know if they need to step in to help out. They do not tell you how to do your job and they do not micromanage the project. The only time they get involved is when the team of people working on the project need to be refocused. With very few exceptions, people work well in that environment. The exceptions are the screw-offs who spend all their "work" time messing around or surfing the internet for porn while everyone else is busting their ass.
There is the "I'm the boss and your going to do it my way" style where the manager says "We need to accomplish XYZ and this is how we're going to do it." They tell you what tools to use, how long it's going to take for you to do it and they are standing behind you telling you what to do every step of the way. They are micromanaging down to a level where the project team is merely an extra set of hands for the manager. Most people do not work well in that environment. The ones who work well in that environment are the ones that should have never been hired in the first place because they don't know what they are doing and they think they are accomplishing something.
There is the "Go do XYZ and don't bother me. I have important manger things to do" style where the manager fails to provide support for the team if it is skidding out of control and is about to slam into a deadline at 100mph. They are oblivious to the problem and when it happens, they blame a few members of the team for the missed deadlines. If the team is successful in meeting the deadlines, the manager take full credit for delivering the project on-time.
The absolute worst management style is "Chaos" where the manager identifies the goal and imposes a few guidelines. They then wait in the background until the project is underway and the team is focused. That is when they introduce some new requirements and impose new guidelines without changing the goal. They have introduced chaos into the system because they think it will help them identify which team members will rise to the top and perform at a high-level for them. I actually had a vice president once say to me, "You need to be able to thrive in ambiguity and adapt with agility" which is the dumbest line I think I've ever heard and I'm almost positive he was quoting it directly from some manager trade journal or maybe the latest self-help book.
Guess which management style Dementia Donny uses...
If you said chaos, you would be correct. If you said micromanager, you would be correct. If you said oblivious blamer, you would be correct.
I have no idea how anyone can show fealty to him, never mind work for him.
⧫
The Red Sox and Twins play at 7:10 this evening and Tolle has the start.
Since the Yankees lost to the Blue Jays last night, the Red Sox are no longer tied for third place in the ALEast.
For the record, my concern with the Red Sox pitching situation is that when Crochet returns from the IL, the Red Sox will send Tolle back down to Worcester and keep Bello.
Tolle has been great and Bello has been unstable as hell. Keeping Bello in the rotation would be a significant mistake on the part of the Red Sox.
Oh, and
Story is out for 6-10 weeks. Also, it's looking like
Anthony might not be back as quick as they hoped.
⧫
Here are some links:
