Power Poisoning (Tales from the Dark Side)

. One of your most estimated colleagues got recently promoted to management. You and others were happy for him…Well, at first, until you realized he turned into someone you never expected: a selfish and arrogant jerk. What the hell happened? You just witnessed Power Poisoning at work, a behavioral change observed again and again once a […]

The Seagull Manager (Tales from the Dark Side)

. “Seagull managers fly in, make a lot of noise, dump on everyone, and then fly out.” – Ken Blanchard,  “The One Minute Manager “. . How do we know we have Seagulls as Managers?  We never see them until there is a problem. Then…surprise! Here they are to save the day, or so they say […]

Incompetent, and unaware of it (Tales from the Dark Side)

. We have to deal with them all the time. We could even be one of them unknowingly. Who am I referring to? Those inflicted with the Better-Than-Average Syndrome, or Illusory superiority. The syndrome  has three elements: The person is incompetent by all objective assessment The person is completely unaware of / impervious to  (1), […]

An Engineer in Management (Tales from the Dark Side)

How does a Software Engineer deal with a “promotion” to a management position? First, you ask yourself if you really want to do it. There is really no point in accepting the position if you believe you will perform poorly. Keeping in mind the Peter Principle, a good way to start is to reflect over all […]