Wednesday Forum - Depression and the Professional

I still have two part completed posts to complete the depression series. They will be behind this post in time order. But I did not want to hold up discussion.

The purpose of this forum is to provide an opportunity for you to talk about your own experiences with depression. Or about your experiences with firms and their responses to depressions. Or about your experiences in managing depression.

I do not care about the approach. It is up to you. My aim remains to stimulate discussion.

Postscript:

I have finally completed all the posts in the depression series. I am now going to update all the previous posts by adding a full list of the posts at the bottom. Now done.

Given this, you may care to read the whole series in order starting with the first post in the common management problems series on dealing with poor performers.

Posts in this Series

Precursor posts:

• 18 March Common Management Problems - dealing with poor performers
• 6 April Common Management Problems - dealing with poor performers 2

The Depression series:

• 25 April Managing Depression - a problem for individuals and firms
• 28 April Professional Services - Values, Culture and Depression 1: IT vs law
• 1 May Professional Services - Values, Culture and Depression 2: case study - Free at Last
• 4 May Professional Services - Values, Culture and Depression 3: John Brogden
• 7 May Professional Services - Values, Culture and Depression 4: Guidelines
• 16 May Professional Services - Values, Culture and Depression 5: Jan's Case
• 16 May Professional Services - Values, Culture and Depression 6: Wrap Up

Wednesday Forum - what makes a good (or bad) boss

I have written about some of the things that I think makes for a good and bad boss. I wondered what your views might be.

What do you think makes someone a good boss, a bad boss? Who has been your best (worst) boss and why?

Wednesday Forum - Delegation Issues

I want to encourage discussion. To this end, I have decided to trial a Wednesday Forum asking readers about their own ideas and experiences. It may well be too early in this blog's history to try this. However, a journey begins with a single step.

When I first joined the Australian Public Service as a new graduate we all used to complain about the way work was allocated. The Director kept the most interesting work and passed the rest onto the class 9. The class 9 selected what he wanted to do and passed the rest onto the class 7. The class 7 then selected, leaving us with the worst stuff. A bit of a parody, but still not far from the truth.

Since then working as a manager and consultant, I have found complaints about delegation to be very common. So I wondered about your views and experiences.

Is delegation in professional services as bad as sometimes presented? What problems have you experienced yourself in the way work is allocated or indeed in trying to allocate work?