Image by billypalooza via Flickr
I was thinking last night about some of the great, obvious questions your kids ask when they’re little. The Mrs. and I were blessed with two very inquiring little minds to play that role. Even though it was quite a while ago that they were asking, one question stand out in my mind and I thought I’d share it with you today since the response says a fair amount about how I see the management world.
One of my daughters – and I don’t remember which one – asked “Daddy, what do you do?” Simple, right? But like most great questions, it prompted an answer that’s anything but simple.
What I did at the time, and for quite sometime thereafter, was manage people. I ran a department with goals, a budget, and (hopefully) demonstrable results. But that wasn’t my answer to the question because that wasn’t how I viewed my role.
As I used to tell all the new hires, my job is to make sure that other folks could to their jobs. To a certain degree, I didn’t really have a job other than to the extent that the folks with whom I worked needed my support or guidance. If they needed a pencil, my job was to find one . OK, maybe I’d just tell them where the supply room was, but I can produce several former colleagues who’ll tell you about the pencils, both literal and figurative, I fetched for them. More importantly, if they needed some help solving a problem or someone to help crunch numbers, they knew someone was ready willing and mostly able to pitch in.
If you’re the type of manager who feels as if something is “beneath” you or if your hands aren’t way dirtier than those of your troops, you’re off track. Trust me: everyone on your team notices if you think your job is something other than to guide, build, and support the team. How come they see it and you don’t?
Consult Keith 