Managing by displeasure

When I was a young manager it was easy for me to think that it was all about me. I got that first tiny taste of power when I noticed people straightened up a bit when I walked into the room. For the first time, I was responsible for the output of each of my employees and I managed by displeasure so they could see that I meant business. As my responsibilities grew, though, I began seeing this in a new light. Realizing that my actual job was the sum total of my entire teams jobs made the scope of work for which I was responsible much too big for me to handle alone. Oh, how I needed all those people.