Learn from Your Past Managers

Joann S. Lublin recently wrote an article in WSJ’s Managing Your Career section: “Recall the Mistakes of Your Past Bosses, So You can Do Better”. She approached three leaders for their learnings, which in summary are:

• Never humiliate staffers in front of others;
• Lightning-fast decisions may be wrong;
• Rarely interfere with a subordinate’s personal time outside the office;
• Remember that perception is reality;

I am a big believer in learning from others: good, bad and the ugly. So, inspired by the article, here are my leadership and management learnings from my past bosses…

• Don’t just give them the fish, teach them how to fish – When it comes to assigning tasks, it is easy to be reminded of the saying “be careful what you ask for, as you might get it”. You want more complete, creative and innovative results from your staff, then take the time to share. Go for a coffee, and discuss the assignment, its background, context, your concerns, stakeholders, overall objectives, challenges, as well as any constraints. Utilize the SMART goals (specific, measurable, attainable, relavant and timely) as well as the delegation model to emphasize expectations, including the empowerment levels. This will certainly minimize the rework, and the results might pleasantly suprise you.
• There is a sweet spot between being complacent and a fire fighter – Creative chaos can be a powerful stimulate for the innovation process. Giving tight deadlines, small budgets and challenging problems and objectives will certainly result in few grunts, but should also trigger more exciting ideas and out of the box thinking from your team. However, if your team is starts to refer to your ideas as ‘the flavor of the week’, then that might be the sign that you’ve gone too far…
• There is no silver-bullet – Managers have the tendency to rely on silver-bullets, and can build dependency on a few of their star developers. But, it is the team that delivers the product. Just like on the basketball court, we need everyone on the team to contribute, including the ones that are sitting on the sidelines. You will be surprised on what the support crew can deliver once you give them the permission and the empowerment.
• Give them the rope, but prevent the hanging – As managers it is our duty to grow and stretch our team. However, that doesn’t mean one should stand by the sidelines and become a pure spectator. You need to use your judgement, as there’s nothing more educational to an employee than a good hanging.
• Think local, act cross-functional – Even the most entrepreneurial and empowered teams can innovate only so much. As managers it is our jobs to think bigger, make connections and translate those innovations to greatness.

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