The Rules Of Management (Pioneer Panel's Library) (16 page)

Maybe you make airplanes—are you going to cut corners? Maybe use substandard metal in the wings? Replace the engines with junkyard replacements? I don’t think so. You’d get discovered pretty quick. Hey, there is an increasing trend of taking managers to court if they have been responsible for injury to anyone using one of their products which has been found to be faulty (by way of design or manufacture or cost cutting). Quite right, too. If we were all made to be personally responsible for what we do in our working lives, maybe things would get a whole lot better. Rant over.

Maybe you don’t make airplanes. Maybe you don’t make anything. Maybe you just program computers. Nice and safe. Can’t hurt anyone there can you? No? Sure? Think things through. Work out worst-case scenarios and be prepared for the fact that whatever we do as managers, we are responsible for someone or something that could get damaged, hurt, wounded, upset, impaired, killed—you name it.

Cutting corners ain’t worth it—you’ll always get discovered. I know you can get caught between the devil and the deep blue sea at times, with your boss telling you to do something and your principles telling you it is madness, but you need the job and the mortgage has to be paid, and it’s easier to shut up and pretend it’s all all right. But it ain’t. You’ll get discovered.

And you have to move heaven and earth to prove to your boss that cutting corners is a real waste of time. The old, “But what would the media/auditors make of this if they got hold of it?” argument often works wonders. As does asking about what insurance we carry or how the legal department has viewed this cost-cutting exercise. If you get told, “I haven’t bothered running it past them,” you can clap your hand to your head and shriek, “Oh, no, I’m working with a mad person.” Using humor can get someone else to realize they have overstepped the mark and need to think.

Management isn’t easy. I mean, sometimes it all goes swimmingly, but sooner or later you come up against a tricky problem—handling someone difficult, finding the best way to address a particular challenge, deciding how to spread the budget around most effectively.

What you need is another pair of ears—a sounding board. It needs to be someone who understands the issues, so probably someone in the company. On the other hand, you shouldn’t really be talking about these things with junior colleagues, especially if they involve other managers. But sometimes you don’t really want to discuss it with your boss—definitely not a good idea if your boss is the subject matter.

It can be tricky to find the right person, but it’s important that you consciously seek out someone you can talk to. Otherwise you will find some challenges much harder than necessary, and you’ll also risk becoming so frustrated that you talk to the wrong people.

Your best bet is generally a manager as senior as you but in a different department. You need someone discreet who you can trust, and whose judgment you respect, and who will find time for you—it’s no good if they’re never there. And of course it’s ideal if it can be reciprocal. You can both support each other, and that makes the trust thing much more balanced. No one’s going to blab to your boss about what you said if they’ve also confided in you.

You don’t have to limit yourself to one sounding board of course. It’s not going to work if you discuss the more confidential aspects of your job with dozens of people. Even if they can all be discreet, which is unlikely—almost everyone will know your innermost worries and weaknesses, and you don’t want that. However, you may find that you have a couple of peers who are useful sounding boards—maybe one who is very helpful with staff issues and another who has a really clear head for strategy. And sometimes someone outside the organization can give you a better perspective because they aren’t bogged down in too much detail, in the way you are. Maybe your partner or a close friend or your mom or an ex-co-worker. Someone who will give you a new angle on things.

You are a manager, so manage. Managing means just that, managing. Managing to work effectively. Managing to be in charge. Managing to be in command.

There seems to be a new movement in which managers are frightened to take command. They seem reluctant to assume control in case their team might resent this or accuse them of being a dic-tator. Nothing could be further from the truth. Teams with good, strong, commanding managers go a lot further because they know there is a captain at the helm. Without a captain we are all at sea—lost, scared, about to crash on the rocks. In a way it almost doesn’t matter what captain we’ve got, just so long as we’ve got someone with their hand on the rudder. We all know the first mate does all the real sailing anyway, so the captain can be whatever, but the first mate can’t function unless they know there is someone there, at the helm.

You’ve got to be a hero to your team and a good second-in-command to your boss. You have to be all these old-fashioned things:

• Dependable

• Reliable

• Strong

• Trustworthy

• Faithful

• Loyal

• Staunch

•
Dedicated

• Accountable

And it’s all a tall order, a tough call. But the rewards are immense. Being a manager is a fabulous job if you handle it right, abide by the rules and play it straight.

I hope you don’t have to “kiss butts” to be a diplomat for your company, but diplomat you should be. The company you work for will drive you mad at times, and at others please you to no end. If you can stay away from the politics and backbiting that goes on in any organization, you’ll be doing fine. Accept that every company has bad bits and good bits. Focus on the good bits and be incredibly proud that it had the good sense to employ one of the best managers in the business—you.

Speak highly of your company wherever you go and in whatever you do. This will get back to the head office and make you even more proud, because nothing generates pride better than being proud (the opposite of a vicious circle—a kindly circle?).

If you get a complaint, accept it, tell the person you will investigate, and get back to them—and do it.

Having to be a diplomat makes you question what your company represents—and that makes you question how happy you are working for them. If it is good and you are already proud—good for you. But if you have doubts, you might have to do some soul searching before continuing. Don’t throw in the towel immediately—you might be of more use on the inside, changing from there.

Just as you would go that extra mile for a customer, find ways to go that extra mile for your company. This doesn’t mean you have to be a yes-person or a lackey or a doormat. You can be strong, proud, independent, and rebellious and still be a diplomat for the company.

OK, no more Rules. This is your book. Keep it secret; keep it safe. If you don’t let anyone else look at it, you’ll be one step ahead without having to do anything else.

I have enjoyed being a manager immensely—am still enjoying it. It has brought me great satisfaction as well as considerable stress at times. But it has always been an adventure, always exciting.

Over the years I have discovered these fundamental Rules, which I don’t think you’ll ever get taught at a manager’s training weekend or course. These Rules have sustained and kept me through many years, from a humble junior manager right up to CEO of my own company. I hope they will serve you as well.

I don’t expect you to learn them all, do them all, agree with them all. But they serve as a useful stepping-off point for conscious decision making, conscious management. What they won’t do is turn you into a goody-goody.

When I was researching this book, I talked to many other managers to see what secret Rules they lived by and was astounded to find a great many still lived by the “stab ’em in the back, claw your way to the top” school of thought. Sad really. They were all skinny and looked stressed, haunted, and unable to relax. The others, by contrast, who live by these Rules, seemed happier, more relaxed, and much more at ease with themselves and with their staff—and their staff respected them and enjoyed working for them and with them. Much better.

If you have any comments or indeed Rules of your own to pass on, you can email me at
[email protected]
.

Good luck with it all.