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What can you change - yourself or others?
Monday, September 5, 2011 Just reading a thoughtful post on Management Craft, in which Lisa Haneberg raises two points:
1. You cannot expect people to be what you aren't.
2. You cannot expect your employees to think or act like you.
Interesting to think about, eh? How does this match up with the notion that you should surround yourself with people who are weak in your areas of strength? It aligns very well, I think.
One of the temptations I fight is trying to get people to do what I would do in a given situation when, in fact, I may be asking them to fight their nature. If I let them use their strengths instead of mimicking mine, maybe they'll come up with something awesome that I'd never have dreamed up on my own.
It seems to me that the finesse of managers is to stick to advising and steering our employees on the "how" instead of the "what." In other words, letting people come up with their own solutions but providing guidance on the best ways to get the idea implemented in light of politics, personalities, and preconceived notions they may have to overcome to be sucessful.
What do you think?
Reader Comments (3)
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Such a great questioning! I strongly support your point concerning the thought the finesse of managers is to stick to advising and steering our employees on the "how" instead of the "what." Steve Jobs was one of the most talented managers ever, and his approach to management was to make tasks as clearly as possible. I read a lot of essays about his management style and I must say that his approach is the ideal for me.
You know this is very contradictory question. For example relations between director and average employee. Its hard to predict all actions of this persons. Sometimes (seems to me) better to make "what". But all in all good manager always advises "how".