Bull Feather Chronicles: Conversations with an Intuitive Manager

By Woodrow Sears

This book features a retired USAF Master Sergeant, now a U.S. State Department embassy administrator. He oversees everything necessary for the Embassy to conduct diplomatic, political, and economic missions, working with U.S. and locally-engaged staff. His management style produces award-winning results by leading people to new levels of individual and group performance. You can learn a lot here!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Woodrow Sears
• Release date: Apr 6, 2011
• ISBN: 9781458150660

Woodrow Sears

Semi-retired consultant, active college instructor, author (6 books for HRD Press in 2007-8), regular contributor to the Cincom "ExpertAccess" business e-zine. I hold one of the early doctorates in Human Resource Development, lectured extensively on project management on an international circuit, worked with clients to install systems, and was heavily involved in civil rights, supervisory, and management training. Came to Lithuania in 1998 as a volunteer, and never left. I live in Vilnius in a former monastery, heat with wood (by choice), and love cooking for friends. Living in Europe is special everyday!

Book preview

Bull Feather Chronicles:

Conversations with an Intuitive Manager

By

Dr. Woody Sears

PUBLISHED BY

Woodrow H. Sears at Smashwords.

Editorial/Design Support by

PleasantValleyPress.net

BULL Feather Chronicles:

Conversations with an Intuitive Manager

Copyright © 2011 Woodrow Sears

License Notes

This free ebook is a collection of articles that first appeared in Expert Access, the business journal published during 2010 and 2011 by Cincom, the pioneering creator and distributor of business software. It is made available by permission of the publisher. You are free to reprint this book, share it with friends, or quote from it, but please provide attribution as follows: "Dr. Woody Sears, writing in Cincom's Expert Access Business Journal." Thank you for respecting the author's work and the publisher's ownership.

Table of Contents

Bull Feather Chronicles:

#1: Management Theory is Useless!

#2: Motivation? Not for People who are Appreciated

#3: Coaching? Just Begin with Telling the Truth

#4: Who’s in Charge Here?

#5: Team Building is a Waste of Time and Money

#6: Outstanding Customer Service Requires Intelligent Delegation

#7: Don’t Monkey About with Morale

#8: If You Want to Hear God Laugh…

#9: Planning is Easy, but Scheduling is an Art Form

#10: Project Management is Easy—It’s the Clerical Discipline That’s Difficult!

#11: Managing Change—It’s an Everyday Requirement Now!

#12: Ouch! Ethics!

About the Bull Feathers Chronicles Participants

Author’s Note

These conversations with my friend, Andy Graves, took place over several years during his posting at U.S. Embassies in Vilnius, Lithuania; Oslo, Norway; and Tallinn, Estonia. We talked while he was cooking, tending turkeys on the Weber, over dinners, in bars, and walking through the forests near his Vilnius and Tallinn homes. Accordingly, these conversations are reconstructions of fragments of discussions, assembled with the certain knowledge that they accurately represent the attitudes and practices of one of the finest managers I've met in 40 years as a consultant and management educator.

At root, Andy is an expediter. He knows how to get things done. He knows from his head and heart how to work with people, and his people respond to him with appreciation and affection. I was a guest at a reunion with a staff from eight years past, and it was like a family reunion. In truth, how often do you imagine people show up on their own time to celebrate the visit of a boss from eight years back? That is the measure of a special individual.

Now, Andy is using his skills and talent as an Embassy management officer, the individual who is in charge of all the non-political, non-diplomatic activities and operations within the Embassy. His current staff has been recognized for its achievements when measured against other locally-engaged staff worldwide.

It is also important that you know that Andy spent 22 years in the U.S. Air Force and won numerous performance awards. Most readers will not have experienced military service, but for those with the will to learn and lead, the military offers training and opportunities to prove their