As a manager and leader I aspire to
be the best I can be in both areas. Too
often however I find that we get caught up with the day to day operations in a
way that lets us forget our basics and values.
It is in these times that we need to
take a breather, re-focus, re-evaluate and just remember what really matters,
and what makes us who we are. We cannot
always be everyone’s friend, that's the reality.
As much as I like to be close to
everyone in our business, and especially to my team, there are times where
decisions have to be made. Decisions
that affect others and the greater good of the business, decisions that influence
areas which individuals may not understand or consider when pursuing a specific
goal.
Making decisions is something that we
constantly face, and often we do not have much time to consider whether they
are the right or wrong ones. Often we will
not find out until much later whether we have made the right decision, but at
the end of the day, someone has to, and armed with intellectual knowledge as
well as experience we are generally able to take the correct path, no matter
how tough or unreasonable it may seem to others.
In saying all this, I came across the
article below by David Di Salvo, posted on 25/9/2012.
Since each of us has had good and bad managers,
it’s tempting to wonder if there’s a brain-based distinction between
them. At times I’ve worked with managers so appallingly unfit
for their role that it seemed like there just had to be something missing
upstairs — some crucial component of what makes a manager effective
that these people just didn’t have.
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On rarer occasions, I’ve met managers who seemed
genetically predestined for their jobs. I asked one of those people once
why he appeared so naturally in sync with managing people and projects, and he
said, “I’ve never really thought about it, but I just like working with good
people and helping to make things happen.” His air of nonchalance didn’t
surprise me, nor did the fact that he’d never given it much thought — I knew he
was genuine in both regards.
In this, my concluding article to a series I began weeks ago, I’m going to describe what my research and
observations reveal about what’s going on in the minds of great managers.
1. Great managers don’t “do”
management — they embody it.
This speaks to why I knew the manager I mentioned
above was genuine when he said he hadn’t considered the question very much, and
that the question itself didn’t really seem important to him. The
question I was asking him addressed the “function” of management, but for him
management “function” wasn’t the point of his job. He never saw it that
way. Instead, he embodied the functions of good management so thoroughly
that separating himself from them and analyzing why he did this or
that well never occurred to him as a good use of time.
2. Great managers limit their
accessibility for only two reasons.
Great managers realize that a vital part of their
job is to be accessible to their staff, and they always strive to uphold this
role — with only two exceptions. The first is if they must meet a
deadline that is crucial, and taking any time away from doing so will result in
disaster. Note: this doesn’t describe every deadline. If a manager
effectively manages his or her time, most deadlines still allow for windows of
accessibility. But every so often one comes up that does not, and for the
period of time necessary to meet it, an effective manager knows they have to
“lock down” their schedule for a while.
The other exception is if an employee is abusing
the manager’s accessibility because they are not able to accomplish what’s
required of them. When an employee is constantly in the manager’s doorway
with a barrage of questions, and no answer is ever sufficient to light their
path, then the manager knows another course of action is necessary. Maybe it’s
training, maybe it’s reassignment – but whatever the case, more
accessibility isn’t the answer; the employee is using it as an excuse.
3. Great managers never
mistreat staff in group settings (or otherwise).
This one may sound like the typical “great managers
don’t throw their employees under the bus,” but there’s more to it than just
that. Every sub-par manager I have met or worked with/for, has
on at least one occasion caused a staff member embarrassment, shame or outright
humiliation in front of others. The reason is always the same — insecure
managers derive a sense of control from showing people that no one is beyond
being stomped on. Sometimes this behavior comes completely out of nowhere
(or so it seemed to the employee), because the manager felt they had to “send a
message” on that particular day. Bad managers have a muted sense of how
much damage they’re doing each time they mistreat a staff member. They may even
think that their willingness to be harsh in public is a sign of
strength, when in fact it’s the ultimate sign of weakness.
4. Great managers celebrate
great achievements and congratulate daily successes.
When a team accomplishes something truly great, the
manager of that team makes sure that the team has an opportunity to
jointly celebrate. Maybe it’s a team lunch, maybe it’s happy hour —
whatever fits the team — but great managers don’t let opportunities like that
go by without giving the team a chance to grow closer through
their achievement. Of course, not every team achievement reaches the
level of “greatness,” but great managers are also always on the lookout for
daily successes — and those are met with congratulations. Maybe it’s a
congratulatory email with a cc: to another supervisor, or perhaps just a
face-to-face show of appreciation. The point is, great managers know that
big achievements and daily successes are opportunities, and they
don’t let them pass by unnoticed.
5. Great managers always refer back to
their experience before making a decision.
Great managers became managers because they
performed well enough to merit the attention
of their supervisors and eventually were given responsibility
for other employees. As such, they know how messy a process getting
promoted can be, and that they didn’t make it to their positions without
suffering their fair share of mistakes. Poor managers (even if they were
once good employees) make decisions using formulaic, one-size-fits-all
approaches. They think that their role dictates that they supervise generically.
Great managers never make that mistake, but instead rely on their rich
repository of personal experience–including mistakes and failures–whenever they
make a decision that affects others.
6. Great managers don’t care about
being known as “great” — they care about being known as great
contributors.
The late great Peter Drucker said, paraphrasing, the effective
executive always asks him/herself, “What can I contribute?” That’s
essential to what makes the mind of a great manager different than that of just
about anyone else in an organization. Every day, they are looking for
ways to contribute more of what they have to offer to make their teams better,
make their projects better, and make the organization better. And
striving to contribute need not be a conscious, intentional process every day;
rather, it becomes a normal part of how a great manager thinks. Again,
it’s not about “being” the role — it’s about embodying it.
7. Great managers willingly pass
the baton.
You can always tell who the insecure
managers are, because they’re the ones most unwilling to identify successors to
their positions. But great managers think about this very differently.
They don’t lack ambition, but they pursue their ambitions with a “back
fill” mentality. Someone on their team has what it takes to do the
manager’s job, and great managers cultivate that talent because they want that
person to move into their role when a new opportunity presents itself. A
poor manager, on the other hand, is an ambitious opportunist who really doesn’t
care about nurturing a replacement — that’s “someone else’s problem.”
8. Great managers are already leaders,
no matter their title.
Countless business books discuss the differences
between management and leadership, but my observation has been that a great
manager is already a leader — and doesn’t especially care what books say about
the alleged differences. Perhaps average managers (to say nothing of the
bad ones) fall short of leadership material, but the great ones already embody
the characteristics that make people highly respected leaders.
And if others in an organization are paying attention, the
great manager will eventually achieve a true leadership role, and many will
benefit from a wise decision to capitalize on greatness.
You can find David on Twitter @neuronarrative and
at his website, The Daily Brain.
You can find me on Twitter @goal1e, and
more information on management and leadership coaching as well as cultural
change through www.chaseperformance.com
