Dear Bob ...Thanks for your response to my question about how to handle an unpredictable peer ("Handling an unpredictable personality," Advice Line, 7/6/2006). There's one aspect of the situation I didn't make clear, which might change your advice: My peer (call him "Ralph") regularly bypasses me and chews out people who report to me, or report to people who report to me. He also gives them assignments; one reas Dear Bob …Thanks for your response to my question about how to handle an unpredictable peer (“Handling an unpredictable personality,” Advice Line, 7/6/2006). There’s one aspect of the situation I didn’t make clear, which might change your advice: My peer (call him “Ralph”) regularly bypasses me and chews out people who report to me, or report to people who report to me. He also gives them assignments; one reason he’ll chew people out is for not getting them finished on time.How does that affect things? – Still living among mood disordersDear Still living …Well, you could ask him to a meeting, close the door, and scream, at the top of your lungs, “What the BLEEP do you think you’re doing! You want to mess up my organization? I’ll show you what messing up an organization looks like! From now on it’s open season on your staff.” You could, but it would be wrong. Even worse, it would be counterproductive, because there’s no way you could do this discreetly. You could deny the conversation, but if you carried out the threat, too many people would know about this.Assuming your CEO has no interest in intervening (if he/she did, this wouldn’t be happening in the first place) I’d suggest a different approach. No guarantees – it’s hard to overcome a weak or wrong-headed CEO – but it has a chance. That is:In the next executive team meeting, raise it as an issue, without naming names. “We have a choice to make in terms of how we work together. Either each of us can directly approach the employees working in each others’ organizations, assign them work, and criticize the results, or we can respect each other. As things stand, two things are happening. First, lots of employees are receiving assignments from at least two directions, creating overwork and confused priorities. And second, many of mine are becoming demoralized because some of you who are doing this have a very different, harsher leadership style than mine. “Starting today, I’m going to authorize everyone in my organization to refuse any requests that aren’t made through the proper channels, and to refer anyone who doesn’t like it, no matter who they are and no matter how loud they yell, to me. It’s the only way I can run things without the situation turning into complete chaos. Will that work for you?”You’ll get blank looks, as everyone pretends they have no idea what you’re talking about. That’s okay. Tell them you aren’t going to name names, and that those who engage in the practice know who they are.There are some risks associated with this, but I don’t have any better ideas, and there are plenty of risks associated with doing nothing. – Bob Technology Industry