“How can someone get rid of the image that they are pressuring people to perform?”

One proven method is to squash the symbols of power so that all of your associates feel they are on an equal footing. Here’s how some have accomplished that objective:

A bank manager in Norfolk removed his name from the most coveted parking spot and replaced it with a sign, “Employee of the month.” He parked with the rest of the staff.

The guidance counselor at a middle school in Jacksonville decided to walk the halls and playgrounds two hours every day, engaging students in informal conversations.

The head honcho of a computer software company in Palo Alto, California, halted the practice of eating lunch with his top people in the private executive dining room. Instead, he ate in the company cafeteria — making certain he sat at a different table each time.

In Cleveland, the president of a wholesale paper company turned his office into an employee lounge and created a rather open office space for himself right in the middle of the warehouse.

By Neil Eskelin in Neil Eskelin’s Daily Jump Start(tm), Copyright (c) 2004, http://www.neileskelin.com