7 deadly sins manager
Forgive me, Lord, for I am a sinner. In pursuit of KPI, I forgot about the vital. He did many misfortunes without knowing, for he was blind. In the name of the holy MS Project Server, I pray you, give me strength to make plans in time, do not put pressure on my neighbor, not interfere with his micromanagement, manage the expectations of the powerful, and let the annual bonus stay with me ...
And the mortal fell on his brow to holy scripture. And tears rolled from his eyes right on the letters “PMBOK - Sixth Edition” embossed in pure gold. And zapilikal phone in his pocket. And he said, wiping tears of repentance: “Hello! How?! Are you completely fucked there? Our customer takes work tomorrow! To remake everything until the evening! What does "we can not" mean? Are you really stupid or something? .. ”And he went out with these words out of the door and slammed them for last ...
I myself am a manager and I myself sin in a managerial way. During my career I managed to see and work with a very decent number of managers of various levels (business owners, executive and managing directors and partners, project managers, programs, portfolios, products, departments, centers, divisions, departments, sectors, links, groups, clusters and markers). I studied their style, noticed strengths and weaknesses. I adopted something, I did not accept it. And finally came to write this note. Of course, as a typical manager, I prefer to arrange the information in the form of a list, t.ch. your attention - an incomplete and final list of mortal managerial sins.
Notice, I'm not writing about the inability, but about the non-use of skill. The fact is that now there are already a lot of very smart ( SMART ) and even smarter ( SMARTER ) managers.
')
However, very often I see that some of them do not make it elementary - they do not follow a single capital letter of the law of setting the problem. Of course, some letters are redundant (just don’t beat me for this liberty in the face - I have to trade them at work tomorrow), but S (specific) and, as a rule, T (time bound) is like Our Father.
However, it is often possible to see how, for example, a letter with the subject “FW: RE: FW: FW: RE: RE: RE: RE: Report !!!” arrives from the management. In the attachment - a table consisting of 37 columns with non-spoken names. The body of the letter contains the accompanying text, where the SMART task looks like "Colleagues, take to work." Of course, I consider the case when this is not a typical task, and the addressees are not aware of the details in other ways.
The sinner, as a rule, thinks in the style of Vovochka from the far-off "And so it will come down!". But we are educated people and we remember what this approach led the cartoon character to. So turn the page.
Responsibility is this: for the manager, she, it seems, is, by default, declared, but in fact it often turns out to be just nothing. The fact is that for many managers the responsibility is rather a headache, arising from the continuous fear of being guilty, if something goes wrong. That is, there must always be someone else who will be guilty of this. The manager, who in the case of a shoal in his area of ​​responsibility, will be able to say "This is my mistake, I am ready to bear responsibility for its consequences" in nature is found not more often than an Amur tiger. And the one who adds to this “Nevertheless, I have already corrected the negative consequences, and we are again in the plan” - not more often than a white lion. The rest of the jackals spill: “Yes we are, yes they are. In general, we are not to blame, but they are to blame. WOF WOF".
Therefore, it turns out that unwillingness to admit one’s guilt / oversight / incompetence, fear of the consequences, along with a lack of understanding of the next steps to remedy the situation, is the basis of that unpleasant type of behavior for which managers so often dislike
This sin involves all kinds of communications. But I will not consider special cases of 1-in-1 communication, but I will take as an example the “beloved” and simply become a cult communication format for all office workers.
Guess the riddle: “What does the manager collect in any situation?” “Information” - you will say and be blessed. But, alas, the correct answer is a meeting.
Many would agree that a truly valuable and effective meeting is a rarity in the work. Why it happens? There are many problems: lack of agenda, lack of context, a lot of unnecessary people, insufficiently needed people, lack of meeting purpose, lack of moderation and / or facilitation, too long a duration, uncomfortable conditions for holding, etc. Therefore, many are drowning in this sea of ​​problems, forgetting that the rescue of drowning people is the work of the manager. It’s just that his hands won’t get to that; their index fingers, in accordance with the previous sin, are searching for the guilty.
Yes, yes, this sin is a piece of Kapitsa’s quotation . Micromanagement, management philosophy of type X , and even the simple desire to be implicated and show yourself smart enough / knowledgeable among the wards, often do not bring anything good. I do not deny that such activities are sometimes harmless, and in rare cases even necessary. But managers often get hooked on the needle of interference in the affairs of performers, justifying their behavior by saying that “the quality of management increases,” “work efficiency increases,” “yes, they cannot do anything at all”, etc. And in search of a new dose, they begin to really annoy their colleagues, killing motivation, reducing work efficiency and forming a negative attitude towards themselves.
Therefore, the manager should always remember that one of his main tasks is not to be a warden, teacher or punisher, but to create conditions in which people will do what they should.
The devil is in the details, well, you remember. But managers do not always remember this, although they probably just expel the devil from their heads. And there is an opinion that it is precisely because of this righteous battle with evil that the projects, companies, countries, and quite successful projects sometimes crumble ...
Some say you don’t have to do the little things. The manager should see the whole picture and not focus on the insignificant. Yes! But in order to at least separate the significant from the insignificant - you need to delve into the essence. And if you don’t go into it, the manager will reassure himself and his management closer to deadline by saying that “unforeseen risks have worked”. “It’s impossible to foresee everything!”: The manager will cry, raising his hands to the sky. "Of course," I will answer. But from a huge amount of trouble you can save what you manage, if you just figure it out.
Some will disagree with me, because, for example, not always the time spent on understanding can pay for itself. However, often the manager doesn’t even need to extract these most important details by himself - they are brought to him by performers. And here the main thing is not to dismiss them, they say, I know better, but to accept and use with gratitude in my work.
“- Tell me, can we definitely use our data exchange format?
- Yes, I agreed on the phone.
- Is it written in their specification?
- Why are you stuck? I say the same - I agreed. "
Familiar, right? Especially great happens when the result of long-term work collapses due to elementary absurd inconsistencies on the issue, which the manager considered "settled." The most unpleasant thing is that the reason for this behavior is often either the banal laziness of the manager, or his fear of appearing intrusive or ignorant (we remember the sin of the details).
Fixing the agreements saves the manager from two main types of trouble: so that no one will forget anything after some time, and so that it is clear that the parties understand each other correctly. Such a trifle: often just a letter from a couple of sentences asking “OK?” At the end. But no, sinners are gonna sin.
A manager who does not know what to do next in any situation and at any given time is not a manager in general. If a bad manager, due to the risks known to him, is continuously filled with a search for potential guilty ones, then a good manager has a study of potential options for leveling the situation in the event of these risks triggering. A bad manager, at best, believes in the initial plan, and a good manager, at worst, in his ability to find alternative ways if the plan did not work.
And in general, if the captain of a ship going at full speed on an iceberg just freezes into a daze of horror, without giving any commands, then it is quite likely that the ship will sink to the bottom in some time.
As you perfectly understand, this list can be continued for a very long time: many of us have so many teeth for management that will be enough for a small factory for the production of false jaws. But it is very important to understand the following. It does not matter how sinful the manager is: as long as he makes a profit, reaches his goals, successfully develops a business, or simply has good relations with the right people, all his sins will be forgiven. And it does not matter what others think, because questions of sinfulness are questions of morality, and each has its own. So all that is written above is a checklist for repentance, which will never be. Amen?
And the mortal fell on his brow to holy scripture. And tears rolled from his eyes right on the letters “PMBOK - Sixth Edition” embossed in pure gold. And zapilikal phone in his pocket. And he said, wiping tears of repentance: “Hello! How?! Are you completely fucked there? Our customer takes work tomorrow! To remake everything until the evening! What does "we can not" mean? Are you really stupid or something? .. ”And he went out with these words out of the door and slammed them for last ...
I myself am a manager and I myself sin in a managerial way. During my career I managed to see and work with a very decent number of managers of various levels (business owners, executive and managing directors and partners, project managers, programs, portfolios, products, departments, centers, divisions, departments, sectors, links, groups, clusters and markers). I studied their style, noticed strengths and weaknesses. I adopted something, I did not accept it. And finally came to write this note. Of course, as a typical manager, I prefer to arrange the information in the form of a list, t.ch. your attention - an incomplete and final list of mortal managerial sins.
1. Do not set tasks normally
Notice, I'm not writing about the inability, but about the non-use of skill. The fact is that now there are already a lot of very smart ( SMART ) and even smarter ( SMARTER ) managers.
')
However, very often I see that some of them do not make it elementary - they do not follow a single capital letter of the law of setting the problem. Of course, some letters are redundant (just don’t beat me for this liberty in the face - I have to trade them at work tomorrow), but S (specific) and, as a rule, T (time bound) is like Our Father.
However, it is often possible to see how, for example, a letter with the subject “FW: RE: FW: FW: RE: RE: RE: RE: Report !!!” arrives from the management. In the attachment - a table consisting of 37 columns with non-spoken names. The body of the letter contains the accompanying text, where the SMART task looks like "Colleagues, take to work." Of course, I consider the case when this is not a typical task, and the addressees are not aware of the details in other ways.
The sinner, as a rule, thinks in the style of Vovochka from the far-off "And so it will come down!". But we are educated people and we remember what this approach led the cartoon character to. So turn the page.
2. Do not be responsible + look for the guilty
Responsibility is this: for the manager, she, it seems, is, by default, declared, but in fact it often turns out to be just nothing. The fact is that for many managers the responsibility is rather a headache, arising from the continuous fear of being guilty, if something goes wrong. That is, there must always be someone else who will be guilty of this. The manager, who in the case of a shoal in his area of ​​responsibility, will be able to say "This is my mistake, I am ready to bear responsibility for its consequences" in nature is found not more often than an Amur tiger. And the one who adds to this “Nevertheless, I have already corrected the negative consequences, and we are again in the plan” - not more often than a white lion. The rest of the jackals spill: “Yes we are, yes they are. In general, we are not to blame, but they are to blame. WOF WOF".
Therefore, it turns out that unwillingness to admit one’s guilt / oversight / incompetence, fear of the consequences, along with a lack of understanding of the next steps to remedy the situation, is the basis of that unpleasant type of behavior for which managers so often dislike
3. Produce inefficient communication
This sin involves all kinds of communications. But I will not consider special cases of 1-in-1 communication, but I will take as an example the “beloved” and simply become a cult communication format for all office workers.
Guess the riddle: “What does the manager collect in any situation?” “Information” - you will say and be blessed. But, alas, the correct answer is a meeting.
Many would agree that a truly valuable and effective meeting is a rarity in the work. Why it happens? There are many problems: lack of agenda, lack of context, a lot of unnecessary people, insufficiently needed people, lack of meeting purpose, lack of moderation and / or facilitation, too long a duration, uncomfortable conditions for holding, etc. Therefore, many are drowning in this sea of ​​problems, forgetting that the rescue of drowning people is the work of the manager. It’s just that his hands won’t get to that; their index fingers, in accordance with the previous sin, are searching for the guilty.
4. Prevent good people from working
Yes, yes, this sin is a piece of Kapitsa’s quotation . Micromanagement, management philosophy of type X , and even the simple desire to be implicated and show yourself smart enough / knowledgeable among the wards, often do not bring anything good. I do not deny that such activities are sometimes harmless, and in rare cases even necessary. But managers often get hooked on the needle of interference in the affairs of performers, justifying their behavior by saying that “the quality of management increases,” “work efficiency increases,” “yes, they cannot do anything at all”, etc. And in search of a new dose, they begin to really annoy their colleagues, killing motivation, reducing work efficiency and forming a negative attitude towards themselves.
Therefore, the manager should always remember that one of his main tasks is not to be a warden, teacher or punisher, but to create conditions in which people will do what they should.
5. Do not understand important details.
The devil is in the details, well, you remember. But managers do not always remember this, although they probably just expel the devil from their heads. And there is an opinion that it is precisely because of this righteous battle with evil that the projects, companies, countries, and quite successful projects sometimes crumble ...
Some say you don’t have to do the little things. The manager should see the whole picture and not focus on the insignificant. Yes! But in order to at least separate the significant from the insignificant - you need to delve into the essence. And if you don’t go into it, the manager will reassure himself and his management closer to deadline by saying that “unforeseen risks have worked”. “It’s impossible to foresee everything!”: The manager will cry, raising his hands to the sky. "Of course," I will answer. But from a huge amount of trouble you can save what you manage, if you just figure it out.
Some will disagree with me, because, for example, not always the time spent on understanding can pay for itself. However, often the manager doesn’t even need to extract these most important details by himself - they are brought to him by performers. And here the main thing is not to dismiss them, they say, I know better, but to accept and use with gratitude in my work.
6. Do not fix agreements
“- Tell me, can we definitely use our data exchange format?
- Yes, I agreed on the phone.
- Is it written in their specification?
- Why are you stuck? I say the same - I agreed. "
Familiar, right? Especially great happens when the result of long-term work collapses due to elementary absurd inconsistencies on the issue, which the manager considered "settled." The most unpleasant thing is that the reason for this behavior is often either the banal laziness of the manager, or his fear of appearing intrusive or ignorant (we remember the sin of the details).
Fixing the agreements saves the manager from two main types of trouble: so that no one will forget anything after some time, and so that it is clear that the parties understand each other correctly. Such a trifle: often just a letter from a couple of sentences asking “OK?” At the end. But no, sinners are gonna sin.
7. Do not know what to do next.
A manager who does not know what to do next in any situation and at any given time is not a manager in general. If a bad manager, due to the risks known to him, is continuously filled with a search for potential guilty ones, then a good manager has a study of potential options for leveling the situation in the event of these risks triggering. A bad manager, at best, believes in the initial plan, and a good manager, at worst, in his ability to find alternative ways if the plan did not work.
And in general, if the captain of a ship going at full speed on an iceberg just freezes into a daze of horror, without giving any commands, then it is quite likely that the ship will sink to the bottom in some time.
As you perfectly understand, this list can be continued for a very long time: many of us have so many teeth for management that will be enough for a small factory for the production of false jaws. But it is very important to understand the following. It does not matter how sinful the manager is: as long as he makes a profit, reaches his goals, successfully develops a business, or simply has good relations with the right people, all his sins will be forgiven. And it does not matter what others think, because questions of sinfulness are questions of morality, and each has its own. So all that is written above is a checklist for repentance, which will never be. Amen?
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/444034/
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