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June 10, 2004
Myths of Management
- There is no such thing as the perfect manager. We practice our craft better on some days than others. Occasionally there’s a day when I do all the things in this talk. There are also days when I do none of them. Acknowledge you have good and bad days. To yourself and your staff.
- The business has given you responsibility, but that doesn’t mean it’s all your problem. As manager, the assumption is you’re a grown-up and will protect the organisation. If you don’t tell anyone things are going badly it is your fault. If you tell your boss and they don’t help, it’s their fault. In fact, you have a responsibility TO ask for help, not survive without it.
- Your job is to find the best solution. It may be the idea you have in your head, but if you don’t ask around you’ll never find out if your staff had a better one. Keep them involved - take on board what works, and reject what doesn’t. You should always be prepared to be convinced otherwise.
- There are certain people we work with who are very powerful gateways to incredibly important stuff. Any management strategy that assumes they don’t have power will backfire. Fear will get you some of the way, but that resentment will fester. Far better, and less time consuming, to lead a gang of willing accomplices instead.
- Budgets are an estimate. And often your finance director already knows exactly how much you’re going to get anyway. Also, by the time you’ve taken out all the personnel and office space and IT costs, the bit you’ve got to make decisions about is only about 10%. Which isn’t so scary after all.
Time to move on to some of the softer skills…
Posted by Tom Dolan at June 10, 2004 04:32 PM
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