The world is in a place in which we gradually learn to question old patterns of societal behaviour and to look deeply into the meaning of what it is that we actually do. Especially in the technical / digital field, we see that our hands are not tied – most of the things we do, we can decide to do for an actual reason, or to find a way of disposing of exactly that – in what speed or level of disruption we consider appropriate.
While this holds for any level of detail, it is especially fruitful in these patterns where we do something for historical reason; the patterns that emerged as seeming to hold true for generation after generation – why should the present days be any different?
Now, I do not hate any traditions just for the reason of them being traditions. That stance is not useful, as a significant number of traditions have some underlying reasons why they work. Sometimes these are not obvious at all, and worse, sometimes everyone around us thinks they can tell use these reasons, while what they tell is are mostly empty phrases, placeholders, tranquilizers, red herrings, tautologies. But I digress.
One of the largest volume of “what we do” revolves around our work. Not only in a “this is a German clichee” sense, but the universal “what we deliver to sustain our livelihood”. And one of the most profitable discussions are these at the intersections of that work and of our inner state of being, our emotions, attitudes, values, interpersonal relations. The stuff that plays no role in traditional work.
To clarfiy, the world has not yet gone to a magical sphere of enlightenment where we’re just so incredibly smarter than our ancestors, but at least the reasoning takes place, and is within reach to be emplaced.
But there is little insight in only asking “what have they thought wrong?”. You have to also ask “what have they gotten right?” to get to the next level.
The Question: “What is Management?”
It’s not as simple to tell, because if you just look at what most Managers do, you can only answer “What is Mismanagement?”. Think of any fictional CEO, and chances are you will imagine one of these movie stereotypes, the people who put more work in buttering their insecure ego with layers of self-importance and complacency until the whole package somewhat sticks.
As such, there appears to be a current trend in Management Consultants that actually do God’s work in trying to correct that view. Do any internet search, there is plenty of quotable verdict on that field – “As a manager, you should trust your people and get out of their way. They work with you for a reason” – Even if they might not convince many Executives in changing their ways, more lower-employed people lose their tolerance for such mannerisms.
This means, that in a job interview, a Newcomer can very well ask – “Tell me, what do we need you for? Under the assumption that I’m the right person for this job, what is there I could possibly need an Executive for without invalidating the former assumption?” (… is not something your average applicant would say, but it’s the core of that idea that matters.)
So, there’s the obvious bulk of organisational overhead, outside representation, legal matters, ensuring-everyone-gets-paid-on-time, duties about Datenschutz & friends, i.e. tasks that are most efficiently handled by as few hands as possible. (Depending on how American you feel, there you might also need to constantly insult your competitors publicly.) But other than that, do you just hang around and ask your employees about their favorite variety of coffee once in a while?
- Yes, in some instances that is the most preferable conduct for your Manager,
- Generally, it’s not.
Where you can really reap the crops
Basically, you are deployed to optimize every flow of any relevant currency. These might change over time, but it is not only the regular appearance of some money in some accounts and it’s also not only the getting out of your way to let the recipients of said money do their magic. It’s also not about everyone feeling absolutely smart and awesome on every occasion. Neither the opposite.
You can be of actual use. Here’s three points that come to my mind.
- 1.) Define the Culture, especially its Boundaries
- 2.) Evaluate the Direction of Motion
- 3.) Advertise that Words can have an Actual Meaning
Now I guess I have written a lot already, so I will have to delve into details in some upcoming posts. But let me summarize.
@1.) Defining the culture of your work place is something you either do conciously or fail miserably, but it gets exponentially more important over time.
- Some obvious things you might not need to define (e.g.” no physical assault”)
- Then there’s potential for micromanagent or personal overreach. These you should never interfere with or only decide case-by-case.
- But some decisions in between have many options, still someone needs to break the symmetry. E.g. “use this particular tool for XYZ”. This can change, and you should always be able to give actual reasons, but if you don’t limit this choice, your people will waste their focus on the wrong questions, and one can only handle a certain number of question marks in their day. It’s about focus.
@2.) Evaluating the direction of motion of your business also sounds obvious. It more or less is. But there is not only motion in the sense of business output, e.g. “we focus on software that…” but inner direction, e.g. “we aim to recruit people who…”. These will change by factors outside your control and if you choose not to change course, you should do it on purpose, not by not thinking about it.
@3.) Knowing what you do (see 2) and how you do it (see 1) is quite nice already. Some focus is even nicer, but even more important than that is guaranteeing a level of consistency that guarantees that the foresaid boundaries are not subject to momentary reassessment. Do not think that one can ever act on a purely ration basis – this does not work ever – but treat your word very deliberate. This does not mean every actual vocabulary, but their fundamental underpinning. Not every attitude can hold forever either. Neither can you be perfect and never forget a thing. But if you appear careless in your word, people will notice that you consider them merely pawns in a game, and they might see that you don’t actually know how to play.
Now this became longer than intended. Anyway, I wish you a happy <legal reason why there’s no work next Monday>!
PS: this blog post is not sponsored or otherwise favorably promoted by the Softwareschneiderei management level 😉
Schneide Blog 