Management style

For a while now I've been thinking about management; the good, the bad and the plain unpleasant experiences I've had over the years have given me some insight into the whole business, so I'll share some thoughts over a few posts in case it's useful to anyone.

What's it all about?

Let's get down to basics. If you're a line manager, what does that job entail? More specifically if you had to sum it up in a sentence what would you say? (do comment below, I'd love to know your thoughts)

I answer that questions as: to ensure those I manage are equipped to do their job and are held accountable for the work they do/don't do.

Sounds simple enough, but start unpacking that and it quickly becomes big, occasionally complex and multifaceted.

It seems obvious but those you manage need to know what their job is.

Whether you're dealing with someone who in turn manages dozens of others, or the office cleaner, they need to know their responsibilities, authority to make decisions, who they're accountable to and for what.

Perhaps what makes this difficult is the irritating problem of people being different. What may be obvious to me, may not be obvious or even occur to you. It's a mix of personality, experience, motivation, etc.

Ask me to clean the toilet and I might clean the whole room, wash down the walls, vacuum the cobwebs, clean the basins, scrub the floors, check the supplies, etc. Or I might just squirt some cleaner into the bowls.

If I do the latter, you, as the facilities manager, may justifiably take me to task for doing a poor job, but did you clearly define it first?

It's a simplistic example but the same holds true no matter what the job... Before someone can do it well, they need to know what it is.

A few years ago I was in a role that was very poorly defined. It was basically defined as doing what the last guy did. Fine, but even though I sat next to him for 18 months, I never really knew what he did. From the outset I asked questions about what they wanted, desired outcomes, success criteria... I got nothing I could work with. Partly I was wrong for the role, but mainly it was simple bad management. I couldn't know I wasn't right for the role because my manager couldn't explain what the role was.

As a manager you'll build a relationship with those you manage, learn their skill set, understand their motivations, basically get to know what makes them tick. I think this is important for any manager. Fail to do this, just go by the book, and you'll probably end up with unmotivated, frustrated and generally fed up team members.

I'd like to leave you with an idea that I'll no doubt return to... Repeatedly. A good manager is, in a large part, a servant to those they manage, not the other way around.