Fortune's Stanley Bing shares his take on the five types of crazy bosses, and some strategies for dealing with one, from "Crazy Bosses" (Harper Collins).
By Stanley Bing
20 of 25
The wimp
Work the antecedents.
Rationale: Wimps require excessive selling. To get your plans accepted, be prepared to dress up your good, original thinking in plain old brown paper wrapping. That means taking your innovative proposals and coming up with things that have existed before that have some similarity to them, things that succeeded and brought glory to the boss who okayed them. He doesn't want to hear "Nobody's ever done anything like this before, Milt." He wants to hear "When they tried something exactly like this over at Omnivore, it went like gangbusters."
Effectiveness: Solid. The wimp is deeply disturbed by anything new and dangerous. He's against risk, no matter how advisable the gamble might be. Don't ask him to be anything other than his self - good crazy boss advice across the board.
The central question of every hardworking person's career is how to work less hard while still being able to buy an expensive bottle of wine without trembling. The answer is simple: Retire while still working! (more)
The central question of every hardworking person's career is how to work less hard while still being able to buy an expensive bottle of wine without trembling. The answer is simple: Retire while still working! (more)
