From HBR: On Managing with Bobby Knight [from joel on software].
Feelings about Knight also follow generational lines. While younger students often see Knight as little more than a bully, older participants tell stories of doing their best work under a mentor with Coach Knight’s tough-love approach. Some also recall their experiences as managers when a stern approach helped set an employee on a more productive course.
Soon, many students are rethinking their position. “The ones that say they couldn’t imagine learning from someone like a Coach Knight, they hear these stories and start questioning, ‘Well, maybe there is another way of thinking about leading,’” Snook says. “And that’s what you want to do, to get people to broaden the stylistic repertoire not only of themselves, but to consider that there are alternative ways of influencing people, and that different people respond to different styles.”
