Monday, 12 August 2013

A Few Good Managers

I just returned from a conference in Atlanta, during which time I stayed in a nice hotel that had a small cafe that served a pretty decent breakfast every day.  Since the trend of starving conference attendees seems to be in full upswing this summer, I ate breakfast there every morning.  It was pretty decent.

The first two mornings I noticed the food was good, and the service was good.  The music was techno-bamboo (my term, you won't find that as an option on iTunes) and that struck me as decidedly unbreakfasty (my word, you won't find that in the Mirriam-Webster).  I think they just forgot to change the channel after the late night drinks crowd went up to their rooms.

On my final morning the presence of a manager was obvious.  The energy level in the breakfast cafe was high, the smiles and greetings were genuine,and the overhead music had, get this, a beginning, middle and end.  The manager was "hopping and bopping" around, a style of management my first boss demanded. 

You can't overstate the value of a good manager. You may not even notice when he's not there, but you sure can tell the difference when he is. 

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