The biggest management sin of all: how to lose your job or at least deserve to lose it.

When I was a kid I loved baseball. I practiced all the time. Across the street from our house was an open field with a small backstop with some heavy chicken wire carelessly nailed up to keep at least some of the balls in the field. The base paths had ruts in them, worsened by rain, but they were base paths and we used them.

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I would play catch with anyone. My dad got me a first-baseman's mitt, and so it was first base for me. I played catch all the time. I even played catch with our house, knocking wooden shingles off in the process and having to help my dad replace them. I could catch, throw and bat with any kid in the neighborhood.

I finally got on a team. I did pretty well during practice and was actually chosen to be the starting first baseman.

The day of the first game came, and I was really nervous. Our pitcher walked the first batter. The next batter hit a ball to short, they got the guy at second, threw to me for the double play and I dropped the ball. The coach, from the third base dugout, hollered in his booming voice for me and everyone watching to hear, "Wiesner, you jerk, do that again and you can go play for your sister's team!"

I played three more games for that guy. Each time I got worse yips, and each time he screamed at me more. I started out thinking I had a good chance of being a real player and ended knowing that I would never be.

I can't blame that coach totally. I was probably never destined for the bigs, but he didn't help me at all to be successful in Little League.

Ever since, I have had an aversion to people who "raise their voice" to intimidate or belittle others. I don't think anyone should waste their time working for a shouter.

How we think about ourselves is our reality. If a boss is trying to lower your self-opinion or self-worth, find another boss.

I had one boss who sat at a desk on a raised platform so he could look down on you. He was a lousy boss.

I had another boss who would gather his entire management team once a week and then insult everyone bitterly in front of all. He would tell the chief engineer, for example, that if he were paid in food for engineering ideas, he would starve. Another lousy boss who ran a company where people didn't stay long.

I had a captain teaching me how to run a boat last summer, and all he would do is holler at me and make me feel like I would never learn. I fooled him. I got rid of him, and I learned from someone else.

I heard the other day that a friend of mine here in Denver is a shouter, a belittler, when no visitors are around. What a shame if it's true.

Worst of all is the damage we do to kids with this sort of thing. We change their lives by causing them to doubt their ability and their natural gifts.

What makes it even worse is that it is almost an irreversible event. Once you have made someone feel really negative about himself, how long would it take to reverse that feeling? Pretty tough to do.

My belief is that if we get caught shouting at people, demeaning them in any way, we should be fired. On the spot.

Pat Wiesner is the retired CEO of WiesnerMedia, publisher of ColoradoBiz. He still leads sales training for the company. Read this and Wiesner's blogs on the Web at cobizmag.com or e-mail him at [e-mail]