“Being a manager means you cannot always be the nice guy you want to be”

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Dear Readers,

Thank you for coming here! 

“Being a manager means you cannot always be the nice guy you want to be”

I have been told this a while back. But I kind of refused to accept it.

So I have been trying my best to deliver quality results while being nice, even though this often means I have to work extra hard and even though sometimes I do not even get the recognition/understanding for my good intention.

But just as all people who do not accept reality, I come to the pivotal point.

I start to push harder and demand more, while knowing that this is still within the reasonable range.

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I know it is the right thing to do.

After all, the success of the team depends on every member of the team doing their part. 

Otherwise, the team wont be as efficient or effective as it should be, even though some members are willing to take the extra load.

Just imagine when such a team goes head to head against another team which has a manager who can ensure everyone in his/her team does their part.

The first team will lost, no matter how hard the manager works.

And when that happens and everyone in that team loses their jobs, it is hard not to pin the manager on the failure board. How hard he works does not matter.

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Again, I know that is the right thing to do, but what surprises me is team’s reaction.

There is no tough resistance. Some of them are even more motivated and happier.

They feedback that they have clearer idea on the expectation and what to do and are learning more. They have to work more, but it is worth it.

The outcome is that delivery improves and I work less.

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To ensure team productivity, there has to be someone in the team pushing the boundaries of possibility.

As the manager, there is no excuse.

A manager’s job is not to be a nice guy, but to lead the team to success.

To us all!

Till next time!

Think & Think & Think

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Dear Readers,

Thank you for coming here!

Just had an embarrassing two-weeks

• I delivered pathetic value
• I made the most basic mistakes
• I could not defend myself or my work
• …
• Worse still, I worked extremely hard

A very junior member did better than me.

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I collected feedback and it was rather simple:

1. Get into the role

As a manager, I was expected to understand really well client requirements, describe clearly what our best responses would be like and then define the structure and what needed to be done, and lastly assign tasks to members of the team and empower them to complete them.

I was not meant to work hard, but to make sure the team works hard

2. Think more on everything to get a head start

With enough thinking, I can be ahead of the curve on planning, discussion, convincing others and defending my points of views.

I cannot wait for things to happen or to be instructed. I need to be adding ideas to partners, making decisions on the ground and leading the team forward.

I need to be thinking what else we can do.

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I look forward to my next assignment.

• I will know my value and level
• I will not get overwhelmed
• I will delegate and make members own their work-streams
• I will not work hard, but think hard
• I will stay ahead of the curve and engage in those difficult conversations
• I will be able to defend my opinions and decisions with an open mind

And ultimately, I will add value and be a good manager.

I know I can do it, because I have done it before.

 

Till next time!

How to be a good employee (10 times the salary in 10 years) - Part 8: Let the bullets fly…

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Dear Readers,

Thank you for coming here!

Two things happened recently at work where I could have delegated better. 

I felt quite bad about them at first.

But they turned out to be right decisions after a week.

Therefore, as a manager, try to delegate properly, but more importantly, do not feel bad.

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1.I could have delegated

In drafting up a deck for the client, I discussed with the team and agreed on the storyline.

There were 5 slides that needed major work and 1 slide that needed adjustment.

3 of the 5 that needed major work would be hard to delegate, because I had all the information and background.

So there were 2 slides that needed major work and 1 slide that needed adjustment that I could choose to delegate.

There were 3 other members in the team.

I only delegated the 1 slide that needed adjustment to one team member and took the 2 that needed major work upon myself.

I guess I was partly trying to continue the work I had done on the 2 slides that needed major work and partly did not want to load the team more as I knew they were involved in other engagements too.

But afterwards, I regretted.

If I had delegated the 2 slides to the two other team members, there would be at least 4 benefits:

1. I would have less to do and could focus more on the 3 slides.
2. The workload of the team would be more even, at least from the perspective of this engagement. The team member that got assigned the 1 slide that needed assignment might feel a bit unfair in the current arrangement.
3. The deck would be more of team work, instead of my storyline and my deck.
4. If there would be needs for further changes to the deck, we could split the work more easily and deliver the update version faster.

I regretted over the weekend multiple times and could not help thinking about the benefits of better delegation.

In the beginning of the subsequent week, I managed to find time to complete all the slides. But I still felt bad.

However, after a few days, I found out that that could be the right decision.

One of the other team member got assigned to another engagement entirely. If I had assigned to him the one slide, I might have to take it back anyway, which would cause more interruption.

The other team member was entirely occupied on another stream of the engagement and she did not even bother me with it, probably partly due to that fact that I left her out of this stream to allow her more time to work on the other area.

Therefore, that decision could be the best one, in term of completing the work effectively without interruptions.

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2.I should not have delegated

The 2nd incident was even more straight forward.

I delegated some analysis to an intern and it turned out to be a bit complicated for her.

I had to spend more time training her than doing the analysis myself.

I regretted also. Why didnt I just do it myself?

However, I later found out that she could catch up much faster on the other analysis after the training. 

I guess the training enabled her to understand the methodology and my train of thoughts.

This is good and she is able to help me with more analysis, which definitely saved more time for me.

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Summary

Delegation is as much science as art.

As a manager, try to delegate properly.

However, if some seemingly less ideal decision is made, do not feel bad.

Let the bullets fly…

You never know how it would turn out.

And we can always learn to improve!

Till next time!