Paper Napkin Wisdom - Podcast And Blog For Entrepreneurs, Leaders And Difference-makers

Meet the guest. Michael Walsh is a Vancouver-based business strategist, author of Business Growth by Design, and founder of Walsh Business Growth Institute, the international consultancy he’s run since 1995 to help owners scale sustainably and earn the “freedom dividend” they started their companies for.   In Part 12 of our ongoing Freedom by Design series, Michael brings a deceptively simple napkin scribble:  “Grow Managers – Best Boss / Worst Boss. Do bad bosses know they’re bad?”  Those three lines crack open one of the biggest constraints to growth: the gulf between technical excellence and people leadership. As Michael tells me:  “The truth is that being a middle manager is probably the toughest job in any company.”  “The skills it takes to deliver a result are very different from the skills it takes to support somebody else to generate the result.”  Why “Best Boss / Worst Boss” is More Than a Fun Ice-Breaker  When Michael runs this exercise with leadership teams, he first asks everyone to list the best