Friday, April 24, 2009

Management Style

in the past 3-4 weeks i've witnessed contrasting management styles at my work place.

management style 1: complains a lot, cannot grasp the situation, leave it to staff to settle the issues, always blaming the customer for the problems.

management style 2: goal oriented, delegate decisively, get a handle of the situation immediately, make positive changes.

when he came in, he laid down (3) simple rules to his management team.

1. the customer is always right.
complain to him but not to the customer.
2. your boss is always right. do what is told.
any failure will be his responsibility.
3. remove 'no' and 'cannot' from your vocabulary.
take the challenge to overcome any obstacles.

through observations of both styles, one can see that a successful manager or person is one that continuously learning, improving. if one stop learning, that where he'll be stuck...frozen in time...it's not that 'older' manager was bad. he just couldn't grasp the situation his team is in. his methodology is old school, doesn't know the system, don't want to touch the technology.

that's the other point; if you want to lead then you better know your stuff otherwise, you're moving around like a headless chicken. even though you're not technically inclined, you should know how the work flows. then, you can spot any bottle-necks and provide solutions.

i'm glad to meet such people in our organization. that means we've the right people to move forward in the future. that also got me wondering, does that mean as we get older, nearing retirement, we become irrelevant? will my subordinates, present and future, think that i'm old school, redundant when i move to senior management?

well fellow night birds, good night and i leave you with comedian, Bill Cosby's sagely advice...i know i'll be thinking about this long and hard...

" I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody." - Bill Cosby

1 comment:

diane said...

I like your entry on Management Style.
It makes me ponder what would I regard as an Effective Manager. as one grows older will he/she necessary grow wiser. Not necessary so. The Manager has power to influence and what he is has spillover effects on others. If one is prone to complaining .. the subordinates will do the same.
Laziness will breed slackers..
I guess if we are really given the privilege to manage, we should reflect what is our personality,our skill sets,our knowledge, our strengths and shortfalls. Inner awareness is critical so we know our own systems, spot the bottle necks and provide the appropriate solutions.
Right ?