Managing as a manager

We, at OfBusiness, have an army of soldiers: great at their craft and ready to lay lives for the org. Some make it to the managerial level, a right earned on being the best at their craft.

The skills required as a manager are very different and some “not natural”:

1. “Asset” optimization — 1st: identify his assets: his own time, his team’s strengths and his powers. 2nd: sweat those assets hard. 3rd: ask for more assets. In that order.
2. Effective checks and balances — Some are too trusting leaving it to good faith, while others create excessive reporting and follow up structures. Middle is the most effective.
3. Calling a spade a spade — Mostly confused with being nasty, be a situation or a team member. Not calling the tough slows the team down.
4. What he owes his team — is clear direction and hope i.e., the team-man is best for the job and will be rewarded when he moves in the defined direction. He need not gift “wins”; nor develop personal bonding.
5. Plan for others — Building a plan for self is easy; for and with others, tough. Aligning them to it and monitoring them by it even harder.

Life is a bad teacher in management, say the Japanese. It trains you only to be an individual contributor or a leader, never a manager.

Originally published at www.ofbusiness.com.