And no, "could" will suffice. A boss that needs to give people orders
either has an ego problem or a staff that is not behind them.
It was merely an observation. I find that requests (I won't say orders,
but if you work in a top-down command structure that's what they are)
should be couched in unambiguous terms.
I will normally say "I need you to do X, Y, Z", whatever, "Please."
And "Thank you." Not exactly approved Field Manual style, but it
keeps things pleasant and civilized. My staff has my back because
they know I have theirs. Most of them have worked with me for
many years. I'm talking 20+ years in some cases. I am not about
running Ben-Hur's galley.
But I avoid the "Could you... Would you..." style of command.
I know they can. They are top professionals in their field and I
expect the best. I know they will. They are as motivated as I am
to succeed at the task at hand. Which happens to be running a major
piece of our critical telecommunications infrastructure.
I am guessing that your staff is non-unionized and that you don't
normally have to meet Sarbanes-Oxley and TL-9000 audit
requirements. Not to mention FCC mandates.
My staff and I do, it's a different world. And we keep the boilers
running and the engines turning. And we do it every day. 99.9%
percent core network reliability.
And you want to knock my management style? "Could" is not a
word in my vocabulary. I use what I have to take the objective.
The next time you make a phone call or access the internet, you
should remember that some old union guys and gals and maybe
their old ex-union supervisor are behind that network. And we
never said we "could", or that we "should", we just said "we will".
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