The frenetic manager

I was sitting next to a Fortune 500 executive at a conference recently. He introduced himself and started a conversation. He was engaging.

Two minutes into our conversation, he looked away without warning, dove into his phone, and rapidly answered email after email.

After a few minutes of firing away on emails, he suddenly raised his hand. The presenter called on him, and he asked an on-topic, well-conceived question.

The presenter answered. My new friend went back to slinging emails.

This is an example of a frenetic manager. I can only imagine him at the office, running from email to crisis to meeting to phone call.

Now, you might be saying, “That’s horrible! If only he would just focus and not check emails so often, he could be so much more productive!”

Maybe. Or does being frenetic speak to deeper truths about management? Much of management is supporting others with ad-hoc help. Henry Mintzberg chronicles this pattern in Simply Managing.

What do you think? Are you a frenetic manager?

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