For Immediate Release

Are Pointy-Haired Bosses Born or Made?

In a recently published article, psychology professor and management consultant Stephen Balzac addresses just that question. In a recently published article, "The Seven Habits of Pointy-Haired Bosses," he discusses the most common, and destructive, habits of the pointy-haired boss made famous in the popular Dilbert comic created by Scott Adams.

According to Balzac, "Very few people start out trying to become a pointy-haired boss. They slide into that role out of ignorance or inertia. Sadly, though many are well-intentioned, their behavior ends up proving costly indeed: a well-run team can be easily ten times as productive as a team managed by a pointy-haired boss. The company pays the price for that lack of productivity when their competitors get products to market first."

A link to the full text of the article can be found at www.7stepsahead.com.

About Steve Balzac

Steve has over twenty years of experience in the high tech industry and is the former Director of Operations for Silicon Genetics, in Redwood City, CA. He was responsible for managing and recruiting technical staff, mentoring, coordinating the activities of multiple departments in the company, and shipping their flagship product. Steve was also the founder of the Society for Interactive Literature West, where he led the development of numerous roleplaying simulations. He recently created a Pandemic Flu simulation for the US National Capitol Region. He has spoken at several conferences, guest lectured at MIT, and appeared on panels on computer game design. His articles have appeared in Metagame, The Journal of Interactive Drama, The IBM Systems Journal, The Lincoln Journal, Mass High Tech, and the Worcester Business Journal.

Steve is an adjunct professor of Industrial/Organizational Psychology at Wentworth Institute of Technology and president of 7 Steps Ahead, LLC (www.7stepsahead.com), a consulting firm based in Stow, MA. An MIT alumnus, he holds graduate degrees in computer science and Industrial/Organizational Psychology.

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