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Again I'd like to thank my favorite editor jo for all the corrections and suggestions that helped to improved this story.

Monday

Harold stood at the door and looked around. On the flipchart at the front of the room someone had written 'Management Skills for the IT Environment,' so he was in the right place. There were probably twenty other people milling about the room or already seated at one of the tables, some were talking and others just staring into space. Everybody looked so young. Harold felt out of place. He took an empty seat at a table near the back and joined those staring into space.

At the front of the room a woman dressed in a business suit was alternately surveying the room and fiddling with papers on the lectern. She was obviously the instructor for the four day course, not only because of her air of authority, but there was a little white rectangle on her chest that said Janet Mason, Instructor. When she saw Harold at the back of the room a little smile appeared.

*quot;Good morning everybody,*quot; the instructor said looking around the room. An incoherent mumble was the crowd's weak reply.

*quot;My name is Janet Mason and I'll be your instructor for the next four days. I'm going to have to assume that the reason each of you are here is because you want to be the best manager you can be. Well, this course will introduce you to the skills necessary to lead and motivate the technical staff of your IT environment. You will practice these skills and behaviors in small groups and learn how to lead with vision, motivate and empower your staff for success, facilitate effective communications both horizontally and vertically, and delegate the decision making process to individuals and teams. By the end of the week you should have a solid foundation for everything you will need as a manager of IT professionals. Now, before I start with this morning's lecture we need to do a couple things. First, I want each of you to introduce yourselves and tell me a little about you. Second, we need to break up into groups. Each group will have four team members and you will stay with your team for the duration of the course. Okay, we'll go around the room for introductions.*quot;

Everybody said who they were and where they were from. Harold was last.

*quot;Hi, my name is Harold Carson. I work for Syntex Pharmaceuticals in Philadelphia. I'm an IT project portfolio coordinator and over the last thirty years have done just about every IT related job imaginable, all except actual management that is.*quot;

Janet smiled at the end of his introduction and said, *quot;Mr. Carson it's good to see you again. Okay, now class we need to break up into groups and while you were introducing yourselves I set up five groups of four and when I call your name and point to a table I want you to move to that table. That will be your group table for the week.*quot;

It took a few minutes for everybody to rearrange themselves. When everybody finally settled down Harold found himself sitting at the same table with two young women and a young man who looked about as old as his oldest grandson. Everybody quickly introduced themselves: Bob was the young man and Natalie and Angel were the two women. The instructor started in on her lecture.

At the ten o'clock break Janet came up to Harold.

*quot;Mr. Carson, it's good to see you again. What brings you to my class? You aren't planning on taking over for me and teaching the class next time are you?*quot;

*quot;No, nothing like that Janet. I'm here at the insistence of Bob Szymanski, you remember Bob don't you? Well, he signed me up for this class I think to get me out of the office for a while. I haven't been concentrating on things very well for some time now and I think he's planning on moving me somewhere where I can't do any harm. The rumor has it he's going to make me the manager of the systems planning group. If I'm a manager then I'll have good people to bail me out when I screw up.*quot;

*quot;Aw, that's not true Harold. You were the best group leader I've ever seen. What's been happening that makes you think you're not doing a good job?*quot;

*quot;Well, ever since Jane died I just haven't had any ability to concentrate. I think I've lost any ability to care. It's been a tough few months.*quot;

*quot;God Harold, I'm so sorry, I had no idea. I hadn't heard much from anybody at Syntex since I left. I hadn't heard about Jane. She was a good woman. I'm sorry for your loss.*quot;

*quot;Yeah, she was everything to me. I feel so lost without her. I think that's why Bob sent me here, to get me away from work for a while and do something that might rekindle the flame to allow me to focus on my work again. That's why he chose this class, I think. San Antonio is beautiful and there's a lot to do on the River Walk after class. And I'm sure he knew that you were the instructor. I think this is company paid R