Divide and Conquer Management Style

I guess you could say that all managers can be put into general management styles. Some are funny. Some are yellers. Some are dictators. Some manage by committee. Some never communicate face to face, but via email. So I suppose that since people are different, so should there be a variety management styles.

One of the most dysfunctional management styles I have seen is what I call the Divide and Conquerer, aka the D&C. The D&C is a manager that chooses to have no structure in his life. He conducts no staff meetings, no structured one on one discussions, any meetings that are scheduled are without an agenda and normally called at the last minute so you can’t prepare.

The D&C likes to walk around a facility and get his information by talking to staff, junior managers, or in some cases, complete strangers. He asks for opinions and tries to piece together the “truth” much like I would imagine a cold war era CIA agent has to get his information from a variety of enemy sources named Natasha and Boris. He never believes anthing his staff tells him and pits one against the other.He never gets the whole picture, but usually gets just enough information to get a sense of what is going on.

Unfortunately, this style also means that much of the information is inaccurate and jaded because these water cooler meetings are with people who are ambushed with questions, and dare not disappoint the boss since he has obviously sought out this individual’s advice. Many of these “sources” would rather lie than say I don’t know. Then, at an inopportune moment, the D&C finally chooses to ask you, the real expert, for the information. He raises questions that have no truth, but are loosely based on fact requiring an indepth answer he doesn’t have time for or can understand, thereby validating his opinion that you are lying!

Because he never gets the whole story and has discussions that are based on hearsay, you end up having to undo all the bad information that the D&C has gleefully accumulated, but for you creates stress, frustration and even arguments with your boss.

Once you recognize the D&C, you can only circumvent his evil ways with direct, oral or written reports – which he hates, because like all cold war era spies, he hates a paper trail.

He is evil. Well, not really, but he is not healthy.

Feel free to leave me a comment or email a question.