ABSTRACT
Management scholars have noted that there is a significant teaching role in managing. The revelation that over one-third of the responses about “best” managers centered on the theme of the manager as mentor and teacher provides a strong statement about this central facet of managing. Donald Winnicott’s central notion of autonomy within boundaries that forms the early “holding environment” was clearly present in several reflections. Autonomy was a notable theme running through descriptions of the best managers, as was its opposite, micro-managing, with perceptions of the worst. The same philosophy is finding its way into corporate life in the form of results only work environments and organizations tailored more to the individual talents and desires of employees. Boundaries serve to separate a social system from its external environment and establish the lines of demarcation between what is inside and what remains outside.
