by Zach Bigalke

Created on: March 06, 2008

"The secret of managing is to keep the guys who hate you away from the guys who are undecided."

A winner of seven World Series titles as a manager, Casey Stengel certainly knows what it takes to be an effective manager. Despite managing woeful Brooklyn and Boston teams early in his managing career, Stengel persevered to end his career with 1905 victories as a manager, where he currently sits eleventh all-time among Major League Baseball's greats...

In any profession, it is a manager's job to MANAGE the business and his or her employees. Nowhere in any job description is a manager ever told to be a buddy or a friend or a well-liked person among the workers who he or she manages. A manager must simultaneously make sure that the employees are doing their jobs effectively, efficiently and in a manner commensurate with the wishes of the ownership...

As Nicolo Machiavelli - the philosopher and author of "Il Principe" - once stated, "He who wishes to be obeyed must know how to command." It may seem like the easiest path for new managers to befriend their staffs; common sense would tend to lean people toward the philosophy that you CATCH MORE FLIES WITH SUGAR THAN VINEGAR. It may give a person satisfaction when others in the workplace enjoy a manager's presence. The fact remains, though, that it is easy enough to be liked as a person; it is much more difficult to garner respect as an authority figure.

An effective leader has far greater concerns than the feelings of employees toward his or her personal demeanor. Managers cannot concern themselves with the pithy animosities of subordinates... there are simply too many other tasks which hold greater significance than whether or not Sam in the mail room enjoys Manager X's company...

It is certainly NICE when employees like the person managing them... but Machiavelli had it right when he quipped, "It is much more secure to be feared than to be loved." A manager must first ensure that his or her duties AS MANDATED BY THEIR CONTRACT are met... friendship and camaraderie with the rest of the staff can wait. "It is not titles that honor men, but men that honor titles."

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