I see where you're coming from here, but I fundamentally disagree with the premise that a project managers primary job function is to give directional commands. In my estimation a good project managers primary responsibility is the emotional well-being, and engagement of the team members on the project.
Which CR would be doing by listening to everybody. What other sort of engagement are you thinking of.
On the face this statement seems reasonable, in retrospect it is ridiculous because of the use of the single word "everybody". Any person managing a project on this scale will have delegated authority, and will respect that delegation. Command structure is implemented for a reason. It creates levels of buffering. No single person, at this level of development, can keep the entirety of the project in focus, all the time.
It's also a statement that presumes we should read everything literally, one of the issues I have with the anti-SC crowd. We don't know what subset of "everybody" CR is referring to. True, it could mean he listens to all 400 employees. It's far more likely to mean that "everybody" is simply all the appropriate team leads.
No manager, ever, should "lose it". A statement like this just tends to evoke visions of the lowly wage slave, browbeaten, and bullied by a tyrannical boss. Tyranny in the workplace, never, EVER, in the end, leads to lasting results.
And define "lose it". I'm not going to defend CR here, since we have all heard the stories and seen him during the disaster at GC17, but at the same time an employee who doesn't do what his boss wants him to after the boss has made a decision is probably going to get chewed out in some fashion if not canned.
A good project manager would put on the bigboy pants, and do the best that they could to bring the team into harmony.
Which entails making a decision and getting the team to follow it and making it work. Once CR decides that space mining is a good profession to have and that CIG should implement mechanics for that profession, then having somebody tell him he is wrong, that space mining shouldln't be there isn't going to help team harmony.
In summation a good project manager understands that the goal of the project is a by product of building an environment that will be eminently conducive to bringing that end goal to fruition.
And if a team member challenges that harmony by constantly criticises the boss, and his plans, ideas and vision? Would he deserves the chewing out or firing that is likely headed his way? A project cannot have 2 or 20 or 200 different goals in mind. Whether we like it or not, CR is the man in charge and it is his vision that counts.
I like that vision. But I also think that if what we hear is anywhere near accurate, CR is the wrong project lead. But a project lead needs to also lead. Part of that is creating a good working environment. But it's also about listening to everybody, even if it is just through team leads, making a choice about how best to achieve the vision and getting the team to work towards it taking that decision in mind. Just because CR speaks about one aspect of the job doesn't necessarily mean the others aren't there.
