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Hopenchange at the CIA

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big steve1/22/2009 9:39:48 am PST

Years ago (20 to be exact) when I got my first management assignment I was determined to be a different kind of manager that those “old coots” that were around. In my first department was a woman, who in my opinion was a terrific employee but she was well known for her negative attitude toward the company. So I sat down with her and during the discussion by her admission what really had her irked was that she felt for years she had been passed over for a promotion. Well I then set about to correct this and with a tremendous amount of personal effort actually got her an out of cycle promotion. (Most promotions were announced at one time but this one was a single promotion). In fact we announced this promotion and it got her a lot of attention and she told me to her face what a great manager I was.

However weeks later I was in a conference room that had one of those fold out walls. My meeting was over but I was writing up my notes. I could hear people on the other side of the wall in the other part of the conference. One was this particular women and in the five minutes without her being aware I could hear and to a rather large group of other people, she ripped me up. Nothing was spared, including my physical appearance, age, gender and most important what a crappy manager I was and the previous manager (the one who had on purpose had not delivered on promotions) ran circles around me. I was crushed. I mean I was really really hurt.

However over the years and through many management assignments I have come to realize that some people just won’t like you because of the position you are in. No amount of giving in to them and giving them what they want will make it better. Welcome to this world Mr. Obama.