The Rules Of Management (Pioneer Panel's Library) (12 page)

There will come a time when it’s time to move on. Other jobs are waiting to be done. Other teams are waiting to be led. You may have to pack up camp and hit the trail. So keep your eyes open for opportunities. As Thomas Edison once said, “Opportunity is missed by most people because it comes dressed in overalls and looks like work.”

Remember your long-term plan—and I bet it didn’t include stuff like, “Stay here until I retire and/or turn to dust”—and keep looking to distant horizons.

Being a good manager, a fantastic manager, often means you get sought out, head-hunted, poached. Be ready to be enticed away. Doesn’t mean you have to go, but be open to offers—how flattering.

Stay on your toes and be ready to move laterally; be prepared to look at unusual opportunities. Be ready perhaps to go it alone if that’s in your long-term plan.

Should you feel guilty at abandoning your team? No. You have a career and that involves moving on. Your team may benefit from a breath of fresh air coming in after you to blow the cobwebs away. I’ve left managerial jobs where the staff seemed
genuinely surprised that I would dare to leave, to spread my wings and go “elsewhere,” as if it were a dark and dangerous country that would gobble me up. Of course, once I had left I gained a reputation as a “deserter” for leaving, but better that than “good riddance.”

My fellow writer Carmel McConnell says in
Get Ahead; Give a Damn
: “Happy, fulfilled, stretched but supported people generally achieve the most at work and get the most from life. They drain a lot of swamps—and have a pretty good time doing it (strange though it may seem swamp drainage is a Very Enjoyable Occupation). However, many of us face a few alligators...those subversive obstacles that get in the way of a productive, high achieving but low-stress kind of life. Some of them we make ourselves, some of them are placed there by other people. Some of them just are.”

And the object of the exercise, my friend, is what? We all have a different agenda. You may say, “To make profits for the shareholders” (
Rule 52
), but you’re just trying to curry favor by giving an answer you think I want. I don’t.

Remember that even when you are up to your ass in alligators the object of the exercise was to drain the swamp. There are many objectives, many swamp-draining exercises. You might see it as the next project, setting the next budget, getting through the next interview, week or disciplinary interview. It
might be long-term stuff, career in general, and so on. And the alligators who bite your ass could be colleagues, customers, clients, bosses, staff, family, you name it/them. But they do get in the way of draining the swamp.

This is a Rule about focusing so that you don’t get side-tracked by all the nonsense that goes on around you. Stay focused and keep the objective in your sights at all times—whatever it may be.

I once worked with a fabulous manager. Sadly he is no longer with us but I remember all the managerial stuff he taught me. He was one of us—seemingly. On the surface he played the company game, discreet, charming, efficient, hard-working, but deep down this man worked for no one but himself.

Bob was an individualist, a rule breaker (but not these Rules—most of these came from him), nonconformist, maverick. He trod a fine line. He was Mr. Cool Dude.

Sure he got the job done and done extremely well, but he was a managerial rebel. He and I were scheduled once to go on a manager’s training course. Guess who failed to show up? Yep, Bob. He wasn’t going to make LEGO
^®
models for anyone.

I went. I made LEGO
^®
models. I toed the company line. Guess who got promoted? Yep, right again. Bob.

So how did we get here? Ah, moaning. I moaned. Bob would say, “None of us has to be here.” And he meant it. Literally. Literally none of us has to be here. We don’t have to do the job. We can walk any time we want. This means we are here by choice. We have chosen to be here. We choose to be here each and every day. It is our choice. If we have chosen to be here, then surely it means we are enjoying it—or we wouldn’t be here? Right? If we aren’t enjoying it, then we should choose not to be here.

Basically what Bob was saying to me was, “Stop moaning—enjoy it or leave.” This doesn’t mean you can’t point out the things that are wrong, but if they aren’t going to get solved you’d better learn to live with them. Enjoy it or move over and let someone else do the job who will. None of us has to be here.

Another manager I worked with stayed late, got in early, skipped lunch, and kept his head down and worked every second he was there. Guess who got promoted over him? Yep, Bob again from
Rule 74
. Mr. Cool Dude.

One of Bob’s favorite lines, to me anyway, was, “Go home, Rich, go home. You’ve got a young family; go home and see them before they forget what you look like. Either that or send them a photo before they really forget.” Naturally I went home. As did Bob, a lot. In fact he was at work so little he got promoted again.

His secret? His team, of which I was one, would have done anything for him. We went that extra mile. We would never have willingly let him down. Bob inspired loyalty in his staff in a way I’ve rarely seen since. He made all of us feel grown-up, trusted, treated in a respectful way. He never shouted, abused, put upon, demanded, overworked, or humiliated his team. I never saw him have to discipline anyone, ever. He was charismatic and charming, cool and relaxed.

He said his secret was his family. For them he worked. He adored his children and would rather have been home with them than working. His love for them showed, and he wore the badge of a happy family man with great pride. He talked a lot about his kids and his wife and was obviously very happy with them.

He never stayed late because that would have been disloyal to his number-one priority—his family. This gave him great depth. He was well rounded and balanced. He was at ease with himself. He had nothing to prove at work because he was content at home. I’ve worked with some complete bastards, and I can say the only thing they all had in common was a bad home life. Their base camp was corrupt, and it showed. So, my dear friend, go home.

We’ve all heard the managers who get angry when the competition steals a client from them. Or who rail about how unfair it was that they lost such and such an order. Or when a client leaves, screaming bloody murder that they’ve been set up. Wrong, wrong, wrong. Believe me, if the competition is stealing your ideas, your customers, your contracts, your clients, your sales, your staff and your income, then you have a) no one to blame but yourself and b) been given a great opportunity to learn how to do it better.

Nothing teaches us better than better competitors. What is it they are doing? What can we learn from this? How can we emulate them? How can we take what they are doing and really run with it? How can we grow our market share by outdoing what they are doing?

Spend some time each week checking what the competition is doing, because if they are effective (and competition invariably is) they will be checking out what you are doing. Spend some time getting to know—and sharing with—the competition. Look, if you have five main competitors and you share with them, you are giving each one a part of what you are doing. But the idea spreads and five will give you ideas, information, research, and so on. We should never fear competition. Embrace it. It grows the market. It keeps you on your toes. It gives you a real learning opportunity—real as in it is actually happening and isn’t a training exercise. And it doesn’t involve LEGO
^®
.

If you fear competition, what you really fear is your own incompetence. If you know you’re doing a good job, the competition can’t touch you. If you’re not doing a good job, the competition can walk all over you—and you know it, just as you know you’re not doing a good job.

If you’re not going to be passionate about your work, what are you going to be passionate about? Look, you spend more time at work doing work, living, breathing, and being at work, than anything else except perhaps sleeping. You must be passionate about what you do. You’re passionate about sex, but that doesn’t last as long as your career. You’re passionate about food, and you only eat three times a day—work is continual. You’re passionate about your life, your hobbies, your family, your holidays. And yet an awful lot of people see their work as something to dread, a chore to be endured. If it’s like that for you, then go home—and stay there. Make room for someone who is going to be passionate about it. But I’m positive that isn’t you.

When I first started my career—of which I have had several—I read up on the industry before I started training. I read about its history, the famous people in it, stories about it, how it evolved and the legislation surrounding it, and how certain traditions associated with it came about. I went into that job a walking encyclopaedia of facts and information, anecdotes and history. And I had my breath taken away by how little everyone else in that industry knew. I was passionate and it seemed no one else was. I found only a terribly small group of people who cared about what they did. Over the years I have met many others, but never enough.

When you are passionate you can be bold because you have that drive, that enthusiasm, that courage, that excitement. Being bold means you can take risks. And taking risks means they pay off—not all the time but often enough that you get a name for yourself as a high-flyer, a go-getter, a success.

Being passionate means caring about what you do. Not just going through the motions but really caring. Being driven—being constantly excited and enthusiastic. What you do makes a difference—it’s not just about the money or the status or the perks. It’s about making a real contribution to people’s lives and the environment and society. If you’re not passionate, what are you? If you are passionate, what are you passionate about? If not now, when?

As a manager, you should prepare for the worst and hope for the best. What’s your worst-case scenario? All the staff phone in sick because it’s the NCAA Tournament? You lose that big order? Sales slump to zero? Building burns down? National strikes? Flu epidemic? Terrorist attack? Oil spillage? Health and Safety close you down? All or any of these things can play havoc with your budget figures.

So what contingency plans do you have in place in case this worst-case scenario actually happens? Huh? Yep, thought so. You’ve got to have emergency plans, panic routes mapped out, procedures for crisis management, actions wrapped up and in the bag, replacement crews sorted, alternative sources of income determined. You have to have a plan.

Now chances are you won’t ever have to implement this plan. With luck and divine intervention, it will always remain a plan—nothing more. But a plan you have to have.

Now, you are allowed to hope. Hope it ain’t never gonna happen. Hope the sun will forever shine. I was once asked by a special committee what I would do in the event of a major bomb scare at the company where I worked. My answer, “Hope it’s a hoax,” made them laugh but earned me no brownie points at all. “What about a plan?” I was asked. “Oh, I’ve got one of those as well,” I said, and I may have recovered about half a point. Have a plan—and a lot of hope.

To let the company see you are on its side, you need to do some concrete things such as

• Buy some shares.

• Read the company newsletter—better still, edit the damn thing.

• Support company functions.

• Show an interest.

• Ask questions.

• Have your interest in the company noticed and recorded in some way.

• Focus on what you contribute to the company, not on what you get out of it.

• Use the company’s products or services.

• Actively speak well of the company.

• Rehearse saying what you think is good about the company—have a ready answer if asked.

• Know the company’s mission statement and philosophy.

• Know the company’s products and/or services inside and out.

• Know the company history—its formation, its mergers and acquisitions, and such, its long-term goals and its key personnel (founder, and more).

• Know the company’s social standing and what it does for the community.

What you do not do—ever—is bad-mouth the company, under any circumstances.

“But, but, but,” I hear you say, “Won’t this make me out to be a yes-person, a lackey, a company mouthpiece?” Nope. Not if you do it right. If you mouth platitudes and seem insincere, people will know it is an act and that you are a company pawn. But if you are strong about it, people will take your lead and follow suit. Set an example. Be outspoken in your praise for the company. It is such an unfashionable thing to do so you will make your mark, but you do have to be sincere and bold.

“But what if I don’t feel so good about the company?” Then get out. It’s a two-way process. They employ you. You work for them. You give and they give. You take and they take. If you’re unhappy about this relationship, then get out, get a divorce, find another lover. You have to love your company and see it as a relationship. If you’re in a bad one, what are you going to do about it? Put up and shut up? I do hope not.