He did not pass that praise on to the team. When the team’s manager called him on it, and implored him to thank the folks who had done the work, his response was, “They were just doing their jobs. That’s not something you thank.”

We call this “management by intimidation,” or MBI, and it’s an honest-to-god strategy that some managers  and executives embrace. The rationale is this: setting the bar higher and higher, by refusing praise and taking exceptional performance for granted, ratchets up personal potential . And stress, after all, is what makes champions, right?

What do you think of this concept?
Have you been a “victim” of this approach?
As a manager, do you make use of this approach?
Do you know people or organizations that use this and does it work for them?