A conversation with the operations manager at my current company had her complaining about the Managers 'non-challant' attitude to serious issues. She went ahead to make a comparison between him and the previous manager that got me thinking.
"Things were a lot better when the previous manager was around"
The lure of that statement is one I hear all too often. We love making comparisons between present and past, or present and alternate experiences especially when it comes to people. Granted, people are allowed to believe whatever they want but in this case I was having none of it.
I see the current managers work ethic, and above all his performance and know that he's certainly not one to be passive about results. The only thing that irks the critic is his apparently warm and relaxed demeanor compared to the previous manager. She believes it was more effective with demanding performance, but the reality doesn't quite correlate with that claim.
It is rather funny how perception and personality can dramatically alter our competence in the eyes of other people. I know the manager isn't too bothered what she thinks of him, as he is very well liked - but such sharp contrast is always an important refresher in this thing called personality differences.
