Three Bad Managers - Rands in Repose

Here's the uncomfortable truth: wildly successful leaders are often terrible managers. The Artist creates brilliant work but treats human concerns as noise. The Dictator cares deeply but bulldozes every conversation into their single vision. The Knife leads effectively but manages through bizarre, off-topic interactions. All three generated massive shareholder value. All three were objectively bad at the human side of management.

The difference matters because leaders tell you where you're going while managers tell you where you are. Leaders handle strategy, managers handle operations. Your boss likely leans one way, and that lean determines how you need to work with them. The Artist required written documentation - detailed assessments of human situations they were ignoring, rewritten until the work itself demonstrated why they should care. The Dictator demanded you care as deeply as they did. You couldn't redirect their rants until you'd done the pre-work to become an expert, explored every path they'd want to litigate, and earned the right to say "this has been explored and here's why it's flawed." The Knife? Stay out of the way and execute on inscrutable requests.

The real lesson isn't about fixing bad managers - you can't, especially as they get more senior. The lesson is that everyone requires adjustment. The person you need to be with your boss is different from who you are with their boss, your team, or your peers. Some adaptations are trivial. Others force you to build entirely new habits and find different perspectives. You don't pick your bosses. You decide who you are with them and what adjustments let you work effectively despite their weaknesses.