2 ms·
I've had 9 managers in the last 4 years and I'm going to make two different points about good managers: POINT #1 Lou Holtz [0] has a great quote about leaders
by alexpotato 7y ago
I've had 9 managers in the last 4 years and I'm going to make two different points about good managers:
POINT #1
Lou Holtz [0] has a great quote about leaders:
"You ask every leader three questions:
1. Can I trust you?
2. Do you care about me?
3. Are you committed to excellence?
Think about someone you've always thought of as great leader and I bet the answer to all three is 'yes'. Now, think of someone you are having problems with and I bet the answer to all three is probably 'no'".
I think about that quote all of the time when interacting with managers.
POINT #2
One way to categorize management is into two different types:
Type 1
The "widget maker". Here the manager is the smartest person in the group and they know more than any other of their underlings. Each employee is considered replaceable because the manager is the one that knows everything so it doesn't matter if a junior person leaves.
Type 2
The "film director". Every member of the team is better than the manager at their particular speciality. e.g. the Special Effects head knows way more than the director ever could about SFX. That means that it becomes the manager's job to be the co-ordinator and get this disparate group of folks to work together towards a shared vision. In fact, part of the director's job is to make that vision and then communicate it in such as way that everyone wants to participate.
This goes both ways in that the "director" needs to trust the team members to do their best work and they, in turn, need to trust the director to "steer the ship" in the right direction.
Personally, I MUCH prefer the "film director" mode although there are times where it's nice to have a manager that knows more about a key part of the work than you do so that you can learn from them.
[0] http://triplecrownleadership.com/the-3-questions-asked-of-every-leader/ http://triplecrownleadership.com/the-3-questions-asked-of-ev...