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– What effect does the boss’s leadership style have on your
behaviour?

– Is there consistency or conflict?
– What does that do to your team?
n What would you prefer to do about it if anything – doing nothing
may be the right choice?
– What can you do?
– What limits your power to act?
– If there is a potential conflict between what you wish and what

you can do – and there may well not be – but if there is, how
will you deal with it?
n How can you avoid or manage stress?
n How can you avoid creating stress for others?
n What are the pressures on your boss?
– Do those pressures create pressure on you?
n What rewards do you personally seek?
– What is likely to be the best way of achieving what you want?
– How does that sit with your personal attitude to loyalty?
n How can you and your boss become part of a superior team?
n Do both of you accept and understand that you depend on each
other for progress?
– What can you do to ensure that you and your boss recognize
your need to work consistently together to achieve goals that
are important to both of you?

Summary

I The behaviour of teams is complex. Winning teams often fail.
I Losing teams always fail. The team that comes a good second
I often has the best chance of being the winner next time, but you
I cannot hold a team in second place and once they become winners
I they experience the same potential pitfalls as any other winner.
I You must ensure that your team recognizes differences where they
I exist to keep them out of a rut of self-satisfaction. Equally,
I however, you must ensure that they see differences where none
I exist.

Conflict is probably inevitable: the manager’s job is often to direct
aggression to where it can do the most good and it usually does most good
when it is directed at competitors outside the organization.

78 Key management questions