Like you, I started with the Borgish tactics, which didn't work at all.

As soon as I realised what it was I was doing, I found some time, and contemplated what my options were. More speciffically, I reflected back on all the managers and supervisors I'd worked for. I was looking for the very best one supervisor or manager.

What I found was a man named Bob, that had the ability to motivate people, without being borgish, Bob also gave employees enough information to allow them to set their own priorities, additionally, when there were problems, he was quick to analize the facts, and either educate employees as to the causes of their trouble (letting them draw their own conclusions and solve the problem) or if need be (rarely) solve the problem and motivate employees toward implementing goals and objectives which would effect a fix of the problem. But most of the time, Bob just walked around - he called this MBWA (Management By Walking Around)

My reason for searching for a single best boss was to emulate as close as possible the things I admired about his management style.

From that day on, whenever there was a problem, or issue that needed my attention, I asked myself "What would Bob do in this situation?"

If I came up with a blank, the overriding ideas was to empower employees to make their best decision as to what to do, or empower them to effect the fix I knew was needed. I asw a tee shirt once that summed it up well - "Tell me what to do, Or how to do it, but not both (both is called micro-management, and that is worse than Borg tactics. Then ALWAYS follow up, to see how things are working.

Bob also had a lot of personal integrity - If he said "I'm going to do this, at that time" it was done at the time promised. Bob also solved his problems without snitching. He would never mention a wayward employee to senior management, with the exception being a time for action against an employee that was truely un-trainable, about 10 minuites before escorting him to ER, and he did this personally, and was honest and forthcomming about the issues, to the point that a terminated employee knew what was wrong with their behavior, and how badly they'd failed at fixing it. Oh, you might say that Bob might have been a hardass, but not so. To get fired,. an employee had to be unable or unwilling to learn and/or modify necessary skills and behaviors. And he NEVER discussed an employees performance, except with that employee alone, away from other employees. I asked him about this once, and his reply - " The only people that need to know about an employee's performance is that employee, and me. peroid"

But mostly, Bob was a resource that anyone could ask help from, that would spend time teaching you the necessary things so that you could succeed. And he never NEVER worked on product.

Hope this helps

toosmart