By Geoffrey James

Need an insight into management personalities? Here is a field guide that can help you identify different types of supervisors and how best to work with them.

1.             The visionary. Visionaries are more concerned with the future than with what's going on here and now. They manage by creating—or trying to create—a reality-distortion field that makes a team believe it can accomplish the impossible.

While visionaries can be fun to work for, they can also be intolerant, overly critical, and sometimes throw tantrums when they don't get their way.

If you're working for a visionary, drink the Kool-Aid, work the long hours, and learn to repeat this mantra: "This organization will change the world."

2.             The climber. Climbers are interested in you only insofar as you can help or hinder their job progress. They spend most of their time and effort figuring out how to win status, claim credit, and build alliances. Because they're obsessed with their own career, they see you—and everyone else—only as either a help or a hindrance to achieving their personal goals.

If you're working for a climber, become the person who "has his back" when his fellow climbers try to stab it.

3.             The bureaucrat. Bureaucrats want everything run by the book. They are resistant to change because they see their current situation as the best of all possible worlds. Bureaucrats thrive inside large enterprises, but falter in smaller firms because the lack of a crowd makes it too obvious that they really aren't doing all that much.

If you're working for a bureaucrat, document everything you do and limit your activities to what's been done in the past. Warning: Bureaucrats can grind your creativity into dust.

4.             The propeller-head. When these engineering-type individuals get into the management chain, they bring a technology-oriented worldview with them. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but it does mean you'll be judged almost entirely on your technical competence.

The propeller-head boss prefers employees who are experts in some technical field—the more obscure the better. They consider all nontechnical types useless.

If you're working for a propeller-head, become fluent in nerdy pop culture references. If possible, illustrate business points by quoting lines from specific Star Trek episodes.

5.             The fogey. Fogeys have been around since the days when secretaries (whoever they were) used typewriters (whatever they were). They're wise in the ways of the world, but clueless about what's actually going on.

Fogeys who are close to retirement are often quite jovial and easygoing; those who must continue to work because they can't afford to retire can be meaner than dyspeptic weasels. If you're working with a fogey, don't assume that he or she is incompetent. Reassure your supervisor that he or she is still relevant and then recruit the individual as a mentor.

6.             The whippersnapper. The flip side of the fogey is the barely-out-of-college go-getter who's assigned to manage seasoned employees. Whippersnappers are energetic and enthusiastic, but secretly afraid that nobody is taking them seriously.

If you're working for a whippersnapper, respond enthusiastically to the energy he or she brings to the job, and never, ever remind him or her of their relative inexperience.

7.             The social director. Social directors consider the personal interactions that happen in the workplace as important as—and sometimes more important than—the work itself. Social directors manage by consensus. They call a lot of meetings and spend a lot of time letting people air their opinions and ideas.

If you're working for a social director, build alliances and garner supporters before trying to get any decision made. Also, be the one who brings the donuts to the meeting.

8.             The dictator. While most people find the "my way or the highway" person irritating, working for a dictator has some advantages. They make decisions quickly, without overanalyzing.

On the other hand, dictators are impervious to outside opinion and brittle when it comes to change. When they fail, it's usually on an epic scale. If you're working for a dictator, simply follow orders and hope for the best. But be ready to job hunt before the dictator drives an organization over a cliff.

9.             The sales star. Selling is part of every job, and every boss should be able to sell his or her ideas. The problem with sales stars is that's the only thing they know how to do.

Sales-star bosses are usually created when sales professionals are hired or promoted into management, which is reckless because managing people requires a different skill set from selling to customers.

If you're working for a sales star, encourage him or her to sell for your organization. Bring them into situations where a deal must be closed or terms negotiated.

10.          The hatchet man. Hatchet men or women are brought into an organization to fire people as quickly as possible, usually to make the company more attractive to a certain group of customers or investors. There are only two roles available for people who work for a hatchet man: henchman or victim.

Ultimately the favored role, that of henchman, is temporary because this person often gets fired, too. The best way to deal with a hatchet man is to be gone by the time he or she arrives.

11.          The lost lamb. Sometimes people who have no management talent end up in a position of authority, usually because a manager left and the organization needs somebody to "hold the fort." Lost lambs continue whatever policies were previously in place and dread doing anything that will be held against them once they're pushed back into the ranks.

If you're working for a lost lamb, move your projects forward without forcing the team leader to make any difficult decisions.

12.          The hero. Heroes prefer to coach others than to do things themselves. They have a knack for figuring out exactly what employees need in order to do a superlative job and then how to get that for them.

Heroes always give their teams credit for the wins, but take personal responsibility for the losses. They believe that "the buck stops here." If you're working for a hero, enjoy it while it lasts, because chances are the hero will get promoted upward or be recruited to work elsewhere.