Once, quite a long time ago, I worked with one client. He was an extremely cultured and educated man. But, ironically, he led a large retail chain. Directly subordinate to him were the branch directors, who periodically had to carry out his instructions. They had to do something, but everything happened as usual, as the client said, as follows: “I call them to my place and tell them that this and that needs to be done. Got it? They tell me that they understand and leave. Two weeks pass. Nothing has been done. I'm calling them again. I explain again what needs to be done. I ask them again if they understood everything. They answer me that, of course, they understood everything. Will you do it in two weeks? They swear to me that they will. Two weeks pass. And again nothing. This is where my blood starts to boil. I'm completely out of it myself. I call them on the carpet, yell at them, using the entire original Russian vocabulary, humiliate them and say all sorts of nasty things. So, not only do they do everything after this, they also begin to show initiative! Well, why, why, Nikolai Alexandrovich, are people like this?!” Yes, really... And really, why? Where is this responsibility, universal kindness and harmony? Why doesn't it work? And it’s all, again, in our inner animal. Any artificially organized herd (and the work team, forgive me, undoubtedly belongs to it) needs strict external boundaries and a leader who sets them. Otherwise it falls apart. into separate individual components. For a person in himself is lazy and, as a rule, lacks initiative (I have already written about this before). So here it is. The leader sets boundaries. And one of the most important primary leadership qualities in the human herd is aggressive sexual dominance. And if in the animal world it happens quite literally, in the world of a socially more developed person it takes on a verbal-symbolic form. How often, when working with clients who occupy leadership positions, I have to face the problem of their insufficient aggressiveness when managing a team. And, as a result, laxity, lack of performance, and sometimes even real sabotage on the part of workers... Back in the 70s, observations were made in the Soviet Union and conclusions that were unusual for that time were made. We observed artel workers working on construction sites. And they noticed the following: “To establish working contacts with artel groups, to effectively manage them, a command mat is sometimes needed (to recognize the boss as “your man,” to remind you of your leadership, to make threats). It must be admitted that command checkmate operates through a zoological mechanism using latent homosexuality to suppress a sexual competitor." No less interesting were the conclusions drawn from observing women who found themselves bosses in a working environment: "Often only after her command checkmate ("three-story" ) the swearing artel workers recognize her as the “mistress” and then work unquestioningly; Repeated obscene tirades are not necessary (except in extreme cases - in case of disobedience of artel workers).” At the same time, female managers who do not use harsh expressions turned out to be significantly less effective in managing their work teams. Why am I all this? Moreover, if you suddenly find yourself a leader, do not try to be polite and understanding. At least always. Because most of your subordinates will perceive this as weakness and, without even realizing it, will climb up the hierarchical ladder over your good head.