http://www.bnet.com/2422-13722_23-34822 ... ives-upper

I put this here for a selfish purpose, I will probably use a part of it for homework assignment due on Monday.

http://www.bnet.com/2422-13722_23-37655 ... ntent;col1

Heh, I had a few colleagues like that in my first job. Not so many anymore, luckily. Seems pretty straightforward how to deal with them I would think, you call them in for a private talk and explain to them what your problem is with them and what they could about it. If he takes it well, you've got a productive and constructive employee on your hands and if he takes it badly then, well, fuck him. I have no patience for people who cannot deal with constructive criticism (you'd be surprised how many people are like that. From my general experience women in particular tend to take professional criticism way too personal).

But I suppose such a scenario/way of working depends a lot on personal charisma. And while I believe that you can work to get the rough edges off some parts of your demeanor, if you don't have it (as a leader, people manager, whatever) you just don't have it. So I'm not a big believer in classes on how to manage your personnel properly. Personally, I have rarely seen something as pathetic as some of my bosses who were just not very charismatic/didn't have many people skills suddenly say things that were a) clearly taken straight from a management training and b) completely out of character.

Because they didn't "feel" it, they just parroted the classes. So ironically, the people who need it can't get it, and those who don't need it probably do.

P.S. That is not to say they were necessarily bad managers. They just sucked at dealing with people on a level beyond "do this and then do that"

Yeah, I don't mean to say it's like that for all women (or men), just seems a recurring thing for me. Maybe it just seems that way because of hormonal balances and/or more emotional expressiveness and such, I dunno.

Not sure if I totally agree with your anaology btw - definitely true in high school but at the workplace, I find that men tend to be more competitive and up-and-forward.

The point was that if the promotion is gained by what looks to others like ass kissing then that promotion is a career suicide because the people who were just colleagues are now subordinates and they will most likely engage in silent sabotage. Prior to promotion its best to have the more important colleagues on ones side.

I think i agree with both Peltz and Ox on the woman-taking-criticism-at-work thing.

As for "Landmines" - we don't really have any where I work. We're pretty good at sorting that stuff out before it becomes a problem. Personally, when I come across landmine-like situations, i'm renound for dealing with them very directly and effectively. Sit down and put the point across to the other person, regardless of pay grade.