Management 12th Edition by Richard Daft

Exercise 17

Your Best and Worst Managers
Step 1. On your own, think of two managers that you have had-the best and the worst. The managers could be anyone who served as an authority figure over you, including an instructor, a boss at work, a manager of a student organization, a leader of a student group, a coach, a volunteer committee in a nonprofit organization, and so on.
Think carefully about the specific behaviors that made each manager the best or the worst and write down what that manager did.
The best manager I ever had did the following:
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The worst manager I ever had did the following:
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Step 2. Divide into groups of four to six members. Each person should share his or her experiences, one at a time.
Write on a sheet or whiteboard separate lists of best manager and worst-manager behaviors.
Step 3. Analyze the two lists. What themes or patterns characterize "best" and "worst" manager behaviors? What are the key differences between the two sets of behaviors?
Step 4. What lessons does your group learn from its analysis? What advice or "words of wisdom" would you give managers to help them be more effective?