Ghost Velcro Mismanagement

Promoting his part of a series called An Intelligent Person’s Guide To Education, retiring Eton Headmaster (and former pupil) Tony Little did the PR rounds this Summer.

As possibly the world’s most famous school, he made a good stab of trying to rebut detractors who deride his institution as a “four letter word”.

What struck me for our Sales arena, was one of his ten questions for parents;

7. Can I strike a balance between being a Velcro parent and a ghost?

This features his names for the worst extremes of parenting,

London broadsheet The Telegraph‘s review defines these poles as “relentlessly clingy and negligently distant”.

You can’t help but think on applying these terms onto management styles.

Then it’s a small step to mapping them onto how you “manage” prospects.

Which stretches across your call frequency with them, how (quickly and often) you follow-up and where you sit on the reactive/proactive scale.

What his media appearances did not convey was exactly what the apt “balance” entails.

Yet at least we can recognise whether we are dangerously veering close to one of his unwanted borders.