The Rules Of Management (Pioneer Panel's Library) (15 page)

You have to make people on your team see that you are not only their mentor, leader, guardian, and protector but also their champion, their hero, their defender. If anyone tries to criticize them, you will rise to their defense. If anyone tries to take advantage of them, you will rush to protect them.

On the other hand, you could always throw them to the wolves. See how far it gets you. But there are a lot of managers out there who seem to think that’s the clever option, the right choice. What do you think? I’ve worked for and with some, and believe me they quickly lose staff.

If your staff has seen you defend them once, they will know they can trust you to have their best interests at heart. That if something unfair is being imposed on them, you will stand up for them. This also means that if you accept something, they are likely to accept it, too—which makes for a smoother life all around.

Don’t you just hate the manager who tries to be your chum, one of the guys/girls, your buddy, your pal. We’ve all worked with them and they are a mess. They embarrass themselves as much as their team. Aim for aloof. Aim for respect rather than being liked. Look, you want your staff to give you all they’ve got, not hugs and drinks down at the corner bar.

You have to create mystique, an air of power, authority, friendliness, without the desperate need to be liked. You have to remain detached.

Some day you may have to fire some of these people, and you don’t need to make it tougher on yourself than you have to.

Some day you will have to promote some of these people, and you don’t want to be seen to be having favorites.

They’ve got to look up to you, respect you, have you as a role model. They can’t do that if you’ve been seen rolling around on the floor of the bar drunk as a skunk on a Friday evening, now can they? You can’t create mystique if you try to be too chummy with them. Maintain a distance and they won’t see it as stand-offishness but will respect the space you give them.

Maintain a physical aloofness as well: no back slapping, hugging, kissing, hair ruffling (hey, I had a manager who used to do this to me; I hated it and him—I was very young but that shouldn’t have made any difference), arm wrestling (you could lose and you’d lose all respect then, believe me), office football, or any form of rough and tumble. Maintain your dignity at all times—and your style, credibility, sanity, and authority.

The really good manager is a specialist. You can’t do everything. You can’t do everyone’s job. You can’t do more than a few things each day anyway. Best to pick your specialist subject, be really, really good at it, and leave the rest to other people. In my company we have a very clear demarcation of who does what. I try to do as little as possible. I figure the better a manager, the less you do; it’s all down to your powers of delegation.

So I stick to what I do best, which is basically talking to other managers. I don’t do sales, but I do open doors for sales staff to walk through. I don’t do key accounts, but I do set up contacts for our key people to follow through, and I do oversee the accounting staff. My “one or two things” is setting up meetings for my team to do the business, and overseeing the overall style of the company—its branding, its corporate identity, its place in the market. I manage the company but I don’t do products.

I know my limitations. I know what I am good at and what I am bad at. I’m lousy on detail, routine, order, regular everyday stuff. I am good on sudden, unorthodox, interesting, one-off, people-orientated projects. I don’t see what I am good at as being better, nor do I see the things I am bad at as being inferior. Quite the opposite in fact. I envy the ordered; those who can pay attention to detail, those who like to see a project through from beginning to end, those with empty in-trays and tidy desks.

What are you good at? And bad? How would you best describe the one or two things you could do well?

Now usually we don’t go round seeking approval because we can follow our gut instincts and we know when we have done a good job. But feedback is always a good thing. You should seek feedback from your peers, your rivals, your team, your bosses, and your customers. You are not seeking praise, approval or love, merely feedback. Remember you are all on the same team—from the janitor right up to the CEO, all kicking toward the same goal, all waving the same flag—or should be.

You should seek feedback to

• Identify your strengths and weaknesses.

• Compare the feedback with your own assessment of any situation—to make sure you are on track and realistic with your own self-appraisal.

• Learn from a situation where you went wrong—or got it right—for next time.

• Identify problem areas that need action and over which you have responsibility.

• See how your team is performing—as additional information to your own assessment.

See, none of this involves praise or approval (or love). It is a real-istic appraisal of a situation or project so you can learn and move on.

Now, how do you ask for feedback? Well, asking people on the team is easy, “So, team, how did we do?” They’ll tell you all right.

Next, your boss, “So, Boss, how did I do?” Again easy.

Customers? Easy. “Is there anything we could do to improve the service/product/delivery times/specifications/proposal?” They’ll tell you all right as well.

Co-workers? Just ask. “So, could you give me some feedback on how you thought the relocation went?” Or “Could you tell me how you think we (you and your team) did with the exhibition?” Or “Any chance of some feedback on the cost-cutting exercise/new accounting procedure/staffing levels over the summer vacations/new theme park ride?” Don’t preface it with, “Can you tell me where I went wrong?” or, “I know the relocation went off appallingly but I don’t know where we screwed up.” Or even worse, “Help me out here, can you? I did wrong but no one will tell me what I did.” Don’t give anyone your judgment of the situation in advance. Let them tell you the good and the bad. Just nod at it all and say “Thank you” and move on.

I have a friend who has a catchphrase—don’t we all?—and his is, “I don’t see how that can possibly be good manners.” He uses it if anyone talks across him at meetings or steals his ideas. I love it because it says everything about poor working relationships. Good manners—what a simple concept but how big a subject.

It is easy to maintain good relationships and friendships at work if you maintain good manners. This doesn’t have to mean opening doors for people or carrying their briefcases. Good manners is being polite, warm, human, compassionate, helpful, welcoming—all the things you’d be for your customers, or should be. (I’m sure you are.)

This becomes tricky when it comes to somebody you don’t like, have clashed with in the past, or who has been rude or unpleasant to you. But that’s when it’s most important to use this skill.

Even the rudest and most unpleasant person will find it very hard to keep being rude if you are pleasant, smiling, and open with them. (Especially if you can bear to throw in a little flattery about their expertise on a subject—if it’s justified, of course.)

Try to see your colleagues as if they were as equally warm as yourself. If you always approach everyone with cheerful optimism, you’ll find that they simply have no choice but to respond in kind. Offer help when you can. Speak to everyone as if they were your equal—as indeed they are. Look for the positive points in people—find something to like or respect about them and focus on that. Take as much time with the most modest of employees as you would with the highest. Treat everyone the same—with respect and decency.

I was listening to a salesperson on the radio the other day, and the way he was talking about his customers made me think he and they were different species. He was condescending, patronizing, abusive, belittling, and ridiculing. He seemed to think it was fair to con people—he said it was up to us to check the small print, and if we didn’t we were somehow stupid.

I have no respect for such people because of these attitudes—and the fact they phone me most evenings as I sit down to dinner with my children. I have a whole range of techniques to punish them for this, including pretending to be deaf and making them shout, saying they need to speak to my father, and leaving the phone off the hook until they get bored and hang up.

Don’t cheat or lie to your customers. You need them. It’s a two-way thing and it is an important relationship. Customers are never too much trouble. They provide my food and clothing and smart car and good vacations. Why should I abuse them? In return, I provide them with entertainment, fun, quality products, a brand they can be proud of, a lifestyle they can buy into, and a sense of belonging to an exciting and dynamic company. I respect them for what they give me, and they respect me for what I give them.

This is the easiest Rule of all. Going the extra mile should be the first thing on your mind when you wake in the morning and the last thing at night. Everything you do should be to take service that bit further.

Trouble is, customers are such a pain in the backside. They want stuff, they demand, they are difficult, they complain, they call at unnatural hours, they expect service above and beyond, they think the whole damn business should be run for them, they moan when we move our call center to India, they want money off, free gifts, two for one, buy one get one free, money back if they are dissatisfied, replacement products, guarantees, safety checks, harmless products. Gee, who do they think they are? Strike a chord here? Ring any bells? I’ve worked in industries where the customer wasn’t so much king as an inconvenience.

Let’s clear up one thing here and now. Without the customer there is no point. No point coming in. No point making anything. No point creating anything. No point doing anything. Without the customer we are all whistling in the dark.

OK, point made. Now we realize the importance of customers, we have to think of ways of getting them, keeping them, satisfying them, welcoming them, going the extra mile for them. We don’t have to be patronizing but we do have to be creative in the ways we woo them. It’s a lot cheaper to service an existing customer than to recruit a new one. Keep the ones you’ve got by being nice to them. Quick exercise: Think of three ways of going the extra mile for your customer right now.

As a manager you have a responsibility to people on your team. You must make sure they don’t come to harm while they are in your care. You have to make sure they are safe, healthy, cared for, well fed and watered, comfortable, kept well away from hazardous substances and equipment, and that they wear suitable safety clothing if necessary.

Now you also have a responsibility to the environment in much the same way. You mustn’t do anything that is going to do harm, cause lasting damage, put anyone at risk of health or life, cause any land to be utilized in a worse way than it was before you came along. You don’t have to be an eco-warrior, but you do have a responsibility not to cause harm or damage. Can you put your hand on your heart and say your managerial role is “clean”?

You have to have some principles—that you won’t cause harm or damage. There has to be a line drawn—by you—somewhere, beyond which you will not go. You have to give something back. You have to be aware of what is going on around you. You have to be aware of what your industry contributes—or takes—from the environment.

This isn’t stuff from the fairies or the hippies or the karmic religionists—this is real stuff. The more you put in, the more you get out. Be good and sleep nights. It’s not a bad philosophy to live by and to manage with.

This Rule follows right on from the previous Rule. Obviously if you think your boss is an idiot, you don’t go and tell him—that’s taking honesty just a shade too far. But don’t lie, or cheat, or steal, or abuse, or defraud, or take advantage, or con, or trick, or swindle, or hinder, or worsen.

As a manager you have been given a privileged position—one of trust and honor. You are responsible for human lives—no, really, real human lives. You screw up and people get hurt. When they go home after working for you all day, they carry on living and breathing, feeling and loving, hurting and dreaming and hoping. You upset them or offend them or abuse them or lie to them and they take that home, and it affects their close family and friends and relatives. You must speak the truth to them at all times. If you can’t say anything nice, say nothing, but don’t lie.

Don’t lie to your bosses. They don’t employ you to do that. They employ you to be straight and to tell the truth. If you’re not going to make your figures, don’t fudge the issue—tell them. They can then take measures to help you or take action because your not making your figures might have a domino effect. They might be let down but they will be grateful for the warning. Better to know, than to hope and be disappointed.

Don’t lie to customers. Obviously in all this there is a measure for artistic truth telling. If a customer asks if your products are superior to your competitors, you don’t have to lie because they are—or you’d be working for the competition, wouldn’t you? But if they ask if certain products have been successful and they haven’t, you are entitled to creative truth telling. Say, “We have been somewhat surprised by sales so far but there is always room for improvement,” rather than, “These really bombed but we’re hoping you’ll take a load off our hands.”