THE WORKPLACE Book identifies the four types of managers

What type of Q are you?
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
What kind of manager are you? Cheerleader, tyrant, cold fish, clueless, buddy, brown nose, pushover, empty suit, hero? Whatever it is, business executive Jerome Loeb and psychologist Bob Lefton have you pegged.
Loeb, who retired in 2001 as chairman of May Co. after a 37-year career, and Lefton, cofounder of Psychological Associates, a leading consultant to many Fortune 500 companies, are co-authors of a new book that defines four types of managerial behavior: Q1, tell and do; Q2, avoid and abdicate; Q3, let's be pals; and Q4, challenge and involve.
The new book, "Why Can't We Get Anything Done Around Here?" aims to provide practical tools to boost productivity, rather than be a primer on managerial style.
The premise is that even in successful companies like May, productivity suffers, mainly because the right tasks are not assigned to the right people.
"The book assumes you have talented, hard-working people," said Loeb. "I found in my business career, very, very few people who couldn't and didn't want to do their jobs."
The book aims to help by providing insight into your managerial style and pointing out common mistakes made in assigning work.
The four managerial types make for interesting reading: you can't resist pigeonholing your bosses.
The types
The manager who behaves in a Q1 manner is hostile and dominant. He talks, you listen. Q1 is driven by a need to control and prop up his self-esteem. He has a low regard for employees and assumes that their work must be watched. He keeps plum assignments for himself. If he delegates at all, he's apt to assign tasks below a person's ability. Decisions are his alone and he motivates by fear and threats. Employees tend to burn out or quit.
Q2 is hostile and submissive. Wary and apathetic, she keeps her distance. While Q1 cracks the whip, the cautious Q2 is more concerned with protecting the status quo than productivity. While Q1 browbeats, Q2 lets people do what they want, not out of any great respect for them but from a desire not to confront. She doesn't stop people from working on time-wasting task. She doesn't enlist, doesn't explain and consequently engenders little passion in employees.
Q3 is warm and submissive. He wants to be liked. Pleasing people is more important than challenging them. Thus his goals are broad, easily reached and can always be revised to accommodate people. It's difficult to have a candid conversation with a Q3 because he only wants to talk about what is pleasant. Conflict -- what conflict? Q3 engenders little passion or productivity.
Q4 is warm and dominant. Like Q1, she is active and decisive, but her concern for people compels her to challenge them and set high standards. She seeks autonomy for her employees and their growth. The goal-oriented Q4 wants to boost productivity and does so by drawing on the team's intellectual capital.
Aiming to help
The aim of the book is not to scold but to help, said Loeb. "This is a book that can change habits. I changed a lot of my habits as a manager."
Interestingly, Lefton says he'd rather work for a Q1 than "the narcissists, the Q2s and Q3s."
Loeb, who joined the interview by speakerphone, wrote much of the book while he was still at May, but did not want it published until he retired, said Lefton.
"He thought it would be perceived as a black hole activity."