The Rules Of Management (Pioneer Panel's Library) (10 page)

Working hard when you’re not being encouraged with an electric cattle prod is a bit like working for yourself. You have to be motivated, dedicated, and focused. It takes practice and training. We all like to goof off. And that’s fine every now and then. We all need thinking time, down time. It is important though not to overdo it.

Don’t let the time bandits come in and steal a whole day. Set little deadlines. Make short lists, so you can cross off lots and feel good about what you’ve done. Get loads of fresh air, or you’ll sleep too much. Don’t drink alcohol at lunchtime, or you’ll sleep afternoons. Go to bed early enough, or you’ll be trying to catch up on sleep in the office.

Beware of time-wasting people. Practice telling people you’ve got something important and urgent to finish and can you come and see them later?

Beware of emails, too—they have a way of sucking time. And they tend to make you terribly reactive—“Oh, I’ve got a clear in-box; all my work is done.” But the truth is, work isn’t replying to emails or composing emails—it is getting your sleeves
rolled up and actually doing something; making phone calls, chasing people, creating sales, checking production, filing reports. Get on with it, now. Be productive. Be profitable. Everything else can take a hike.

You have to plan for disasters. You’ve got to build a “what if” clause into everything you do. If you don’t, you’ll be caught looking inept. Never assume it’s all going right—it isn’t. Never assume you’ll always do OK—you won’t. Never assume technology will always work—it won’t. Never assume you’ve got enough time—you haven’t. Never assume they’ll turn up on time—they won’t. Never assume you won’t forget things—you will. Never assume Plan A will work—it won’t. Never assume Plan B will also work—one day that won’t either.

I think you might get the picture by now. When things go wrong—and they will—be ready to improvise, adapt, and overcome. Say you’re giving a presentation and have mapped out the whole thing using PowerPoint; what will you do if there is a power outage? Technology failure? You must have worked out beforehand what to do when power fails or technology screws up or that order fails to come in—because they will. Maybe not today, but tomorrow lies waiting to catch you unaware, unguarded, unprepared.

Really good managers, of course, don’t need Plan B or Plan C because they can think on their feet and are ready to cover their tracks at any time, ready to improvise. I think it wiser though constantly to ask, “How am I going to cope when this doesn’t work?” Serves me every time.

If you keep your eyes open and your wits about you, there will be opportunities, chances, and bits of random luck. If you are quick and clever and enterprising you can catch the coattails of such moments and ride on the back of them. Such is luck. Grab it while you can because it is a fleeting thing. You can’t build it into a plan or a budget or a report, but it will happen all around you. In fact, the more you cherish it and nurture it and look for it, the more it will happen. We have to believe in luck or otherwise how could we attribute the success of people we don’t like?

Now don’t go building your career on luck; it doesn’t work like that. I’m saying we all get a bit lucky from time to time, and when that happens, you have to hang in there and go with it—and then keep quiet about it. You don’t always have to tell the truth—and all that false modesty sucks. If you were lucky, say, “It was a lucky break,” but say it in such a way that people know months of careful planning went into it, years of research, decades of experience—because that, frankly, is the truth.

There is no such thing as luck alone, but there are random-seeming moments of opportunity which you can grasp because of all that work, experience, research, and planning. If you fail to grasp, the moment will fly past and you’ll be none the better for it. But learn to recognize and capitalize on the
opportunity, and you can hitch a ride on it. It’s all up to you. If you weren’t so good at your job, the luck wouldn’t happen. If you weren’t such a good manager, you wouldn’t be quick enough to seize those moments and utilize them.

As U.S. President Thomas Jefferson said, “I am a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.”

The good manager stays well ahead of the stress game. And why? Because stress is counterproductive—it isn’t profitable. The old image of the stressed executive popping pills, with high blood pressure but still pulling off fantastic deals is just that—old. The modern executive is laid back, unhurried, charming, thoughtful, careful, on top of their job. You don’t need stress. You really, really don’t. Yes, you need excitement, challenge, enthusiasm, exhilaration, and stimulation, but you do not need stress.

Stress is just excitement and fun that has gone wrong. Instead of loving your job, you start to fear it. Instead of being excited, you experience fear. Instead of challenge, it’s confrontation.

So how do you manifest stress? No really, how do you experience it? This is such a personal thing. I know when I’m under a lot of stress because I shout more, reason less, demand more, am polite less, rush more, and am laid back less. But that’s me. For you it might be smoking or drinking more or not sleeping or not eating (or eating too much or too hurriedly or too much junk food) or it might show as nervous exhaustion (sleeping too much), panic attacks, twitches, tics, irrational fears, inappropriate behavior, driving too fast (me again as well to that one). If you don’t know what your signs are, ask somebody who knows you well—they will be able to tell you.

When I notice a couple of my stress symptoms, I take time out to check

• Why am I stressed?

• What is causing the stress?

• What can I do about it?

• How can I stop it recurring again?

I don’t like being stressed (my children say I am a real pain) and there is no job worth doing that I’m going to allow to affect my health detrimentally. I know how to chill—I’m very good at lowering the stress levels once I notice they’ve crept up. I know what works for me. What works for you?

It’s easy to put off managing your health. Do it now. The general advice is

• Eat properly—sitting down in a relaxed setting, taking time to enjoy your food.

• Eat proper food—fresh, organic, lean meat, fresh fruit, salads, vegetables, roughage, no junk, no processed food.

• Get a decent night’s sleep—every night.

• Stop worrying—laugh, have fun, enjoy something not work-related.

• Carry out basic health checks regularly to catch major conditions in time, such as testicular or breast lumps and bumps.

• Work in a comfortable and safe environment.

• Get yourself screened from time to time for cholesterol levels, blood pressure, and so on.

• Have supportive and loving relationships.

• Have some sort of belief system to sustain you in times of crisis.

• Exercise.

• Watch your weight.

• Drink moderately.

• Don’t smoke.
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Of all of them, this is the biggie apparently and will do more than all the others put together to contribute to your overall life expectancy and health.

Of course you don’t have to do any of this. You’re a grown-up and can make your own decisions. But if you want to live long and prosper, it pays to think now.

Look, working for a living is always going to be a mixed bag. And the higher up you go, the more true this is. As a lowly accounts clerk, back when I first started out, I got used to being bored, idle, irritated, frustrated, and sick of the job. By the time I had risen to being a general manager, I was strangely surprised to find myself also bored, idle, irritated, frustrated, and sick of the job.

But whereas when I was starting out I didn’t expect any different, by the time I had risen to the heights I was totally unprepared for the same feelings. I guess I expected every day to be dramatic, exciting, utterly challenging, demanding, and knife-edge stuff. And when it wasn’t, I was, I guess, disappointed.

Now, of course, I realize that not every day can be fantastic. Some days will be boring. Some days will be adrenaline-filled and dramatic—but not as many as will be boring. You have to be prepared for the pain and the pleasure. You have to adjust your expectations so that you don’t get irritated when it is boring, and don’t explode with pleasure when it is too exciting for words.

Trouble is, if it is boring, you might be tempted, as indeed I have been on many occasions, to liven it up a bit by being disruptive. Best sit on your hands and let the feeling pass. As a manager you aren’t allowed to be disruptive—except in an innovative way of course.

Whatever you are doing now, things are going to change. It is inevitable that the future will soon be upon us. Things will change; they have to. People you now work with will leave your team. Your sales figures will improve/slacken off. Your boss will retire/move on. Your customers will change. Your colleagues will be different. You, too, will change.

All these changes happen, and it is the smart manager who not only embraces them but is also prepared for them. Earlier we looked at having a Plan B and a Plan C; well, this is different—this is not catering for a specific crisis but being fluid and flexible enough to stay ahead of the game. What this means is that when change occurs you can take it in your stride and aren’t thrown off course by it.

I once worked for a particular company that got taken over twice, in the space of a year. Each time the new people came in, they had a whole series of changes to implement. They wanted things done “their way.” This was fine, but after the first time we had barely got our breath back when the second takeover occurred.

I watched a lot of people fall by the wayside because they couldn’t cope with the stress of having to stay so flexible. I was nearly one of them myself. It was a hard time but I saw then that resisting change was futile. Only by embracing the change could I survive—and not only survive but also milk the situation to my advantage. The more I smiled and had a sort of “bring it on attitude” the more responsibility I was given for
the change itself. Other man-agers played the oak in the storm, but I was the willow. I bent and swayed and survived. They resisted, stood firm, and lost branches.

You have to face your own future as well. Will you move on? Have you grown bored with the job, the industry, your role in it? What turns you on today may not in 10 years’ time.

It’s easy to adopt a head-down approach to life. It’s harder to remain cheerful; head up. Is your glass half empty or half full? If it seems to be half empty, perhaps you need a holiday, a retraining schedule, a few new challenges, a new job, a new department, a new team—or simply a new approach. Life does tend to get fired at us at point-blank range and there is barely time to duck. The manager’s lot is not always a happy or easy one and you get tired, despondent, bored, listless, and just about ready to quit. We all do from time to time. Being a manager can feel like a thankless task. You get stuff shoveled at you from all directions. I’m never sure whether it’s better to be at the top shoveling stuff downward or at the bottom shoveling stuff upward but I sure as hell know it’s not great caught in the middle fending it off from above and below.

Head up is both an affirmation (repeat it to yourself constantly when encountering problems, but silently, only to yourself, or they will devour you) and a physical instruction—you can physically and emotionally (and probably mentally) practice head up.

While looking in a mirror, keep your head up and say, “I feel really miserable.” You will laugh. Try the opposite. Head down, and say, “I feel really happy.” Again you will find it impossible and silly. You will laugh. But you have to be looking in a mirror. Perhaps you always look like that. Either way it is funny. You are funny.

When entering a room, it is head up. When chairing a meeting, it is head up. When doing a presentation, it is head up. When greeting people, it is head up. When talking to staff, it is head up. When talking to customers, it is head up. At the end of a long and busy day, when you go to bed, you can do head down—and go to sleep knowing you’ve been big and bright and bold all day. Well done you.

You’ve got to see the big picture. It’s no good concentrating solely on what you do or what your department does. You can’t even keep your gaze limited to what your organization does, or even what your industry does. You’ve got to see the wider view all the time. The good manager—that’s you
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—needs to have a good grasp of politics—both national and world—social history, world events, national intentions, international concerns, the environment, current legislation, proposed legislation
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and technological developments (ones that may or may not affect your industry).

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I keep saying, “That’s you.” You may wonder how I know. Because you are reading this. Bad managers think they know it all. You are prepared to read, to learn, to seek the advice of others, to widen your horizons, to have opinions, to stay abreast of current and new ideas and to keep an open mind by reading this far. That’s good. You are good. Well done you.