What Do You Want to Say to Your Boss and Can't?

Brent Barton

This was motivated by telling my boss I wanted to hit him.  Fortunately, I didn't get fired but it led to the desire to research transparency.

Statement	Associate with this statement
My Boss wants to push decisions down but can't resist getting into the details.	9
"What got you where you are is now getting you nowhere."	7
Over-priviledging harmony: Consensus being more important than making good decisions.	7
Embrace 80-20 rule - over-emphasis on small things that don't add big value.	6
"Grow some."	3
"Don't be available - be present."	8
"Why are you here?  You're not inspirine and you are unimpressive."	4
"You're not funny."	2
"I'm not you. That's why I am here."	5
"Your job is not going to be here soon.  It is going to go away."	3
"Being passive-aggressive is really NOT a good management style."	4
"Conflict Exists. You have to deal with it."	8
"Better to be accurate rather than super-optimistic."	6
"Messy successes are better than clean failures."	4
"Tell me what you want, not how you want me to do it."	5
"Impossible goals are not inspirational."	5
"Learn how to prioritize. Everything is No. 1 until tomorrow [when there are new No. 1 prioirtiites]."	5
"You don't know people you manage; strengths, weaknesses… You have your own narrative of who people are - which is wrong."	4
Listens to people but discards information that creates opposite results - cognitive dissonance.	5
Cultural mis-match of Product Management (traditional) & deeply agile engineering.	7
"Strike a better balance between shielding me, filtering information, and pointing the firehose at me."	5