Squeeze and squeeze

He said he was better now, but he never returned to work, and has now retired.

Sadistic management: squeeze and squeeze until a result pops out, or something gives. It was the accepted way when I started my career.

Thing is, pressure on its own doesn’t really work.

Asked what would have helped, the man said if someone had been there to listen and talk things through.

Pressure, or challenge, needs to be balanced by support, as John Blakey and Ian Day explain in their book, “Challenging Coaching”.

Look at their diagram.

All challenge and no support is the zone of stress. It’s also the zone of fear, risk avoidance, blame, factionalism, staff attrition and poor mental health.

All support and no challenge is the zone of smugness and complacency, and poor results.

Support means things like giving encouragement and appreciating progress, acknowledging effort and contribution, empathising. Your people need to know you’re on their side.

We need to practice working both dials at once.

Note that if we can’t be bothered with either, staff can’t be bothered either.

This is a big part of deep and deliberate delegation.