Headteachers
Twenty years as a teacher doesn't make you an able manager; managers are either born or taught or both. Willingly going along with a government policy which denies children a decent education but produces lots of lovely data just shows how spineless and/or unimaginative you are. While you sit in your office polishing numbers - your big fat salary cheque in particular - the social structure which the school should have is in meltdown because you won't back up those minions who really care and can see what's going on.

Damn, I'm not even at work. I'm being bitter in my own time - sod this for a lark.
(The Jannie, Mon 31 May 2010, 11:57, 3 replies)

I've heard this opinion many times,
that management is a different skill to those being managed, but I've had many shit managers who were shit because they didn't understand what I do or what I know.

I'd much rather be managed by someone who has a decent working knowledge and experience of what they are managing. Tall order, I know :-(
(MrOli is ugly, but in the morning you will be sober, Mon 31 May 2010, 21:29, closed)

Fair point, but...
... management is itself a skill. JUST having done a particular job for a long period of time does not, in itself, qualify anyone for promotion to manage a team of other people who also have do the same job.

So, while you're right that it helps enormously if a manager knows the jobs and skills of his or her team as well as having an MBA from Smartarse University, having done scrobble polishing for 30 years then being promoted to manager of a team of scrobble polishers doesn't automatically mean the team will suddenly perform better.

Business's problem is that, in deciding the way to deliver shareholder value is to outsource training (among other things), they rely on fresh-from-college managerial know-nothings being able to pick up the on-the-job skills very quickly. 30 years ago, they'd pay for their own people to go to business school, and get someone with a wealth of real job experience AND managerial skills. Nowadays they just get a wannabe tycoon with a lot of personal debt to pay off. And a very slightly higher stock price.
Tossers
( shinyshinyscalp less a man, more a way of life, Tue 1 Jun 2010, 15:17, closed)

maybe
they just know which battles can be won, and which battles are lost causes. There are plenty of decent heads out there who take a lot of flak that never even gets noticed by those lower in the pay-grade *because* it has been successfully averted
( Amberl was stripey and dominated Europe, Mon 31 May 2010, 22:55, closed)