Being a Manager

A Friend sent me this: I once worked for a very talented city manager who lasted 12 years in an environment dominated by two esteemed Greatest Generation council members. The manager was thought highly of by the employees and wanted to raise his large family in a good school system. He had no thoughts of leaving. When his mayor died in office, that last link to a more mature council chamber lasted almost two years, or one election cycle. The manager suffered his first termination in 22 years. From this experience evolved my theory of The Sandbox Syndrome: Our culture may allow people to attain positions of power and authority with the very same emotional tools they had when they were 6 years old and refused to allow the 8-year-olds into their sandbox.