Management Musing v1.7

Manager is a hyphenated word – Man Ager. I am sorry that is not gender neutral but I am sure you know what I mean. Aging a person is from having to depend on others. Aging is from waiting for others to “get it” especially if you think that you have it. What is terribly wrong with this is that by following old fashioned styles of management the manager is the limit to the capacity of the group. That is right isn’t it? Can you see that and understand that?

Well I don’t like being a limit to anything. There really should never be limits to anything. The limit that might be acceptable is our inability to get it done. We simply are not capable. No schooling, or fitness programs, or special pharmaceuticals will solve the mystery of each of our limitations. Just reconcile yourself to the fact that you have limits and move on. The joy of management is you will be able to find and attract and hire and retain people who don’t have the same limitations that you do and watch them succeed in areas that were not possible for you to succeed. This is a wondrous thing.

Last time I talked about mentoring as a method to develop new talent and new employees. This is something different isn’t it? You have hired talent and they are on the job. Control oriented top down structures are toxic to creativity. Innovation, particularly of the disruptive sort, is unlikely to flourish when a few key executives have the choke hold on resource allocation. (Clayton Christenden). What the employees need today is freedom and responsibility. You need to allow them to fail but not in such a way that they hurt themselves or your group. That is where you the manager come on to the field of play. You are the conductor ensuring that everything works together in harmony. And yes that accelerates the aging process. But just imagine the joy you have watching your children succeed at something. This new reality allows you to experience that joy at work too. The time is now.