Who is a manager? He is just another well paid brick in the organizational wall, who is responsible for making the bricks below him work. Isn’t it as simple as that? Maybe yes, but that just wont suffice. Just like how every brick is not durable, every manager is not capable! He may not be able to lead his team! May not be able to win his team’s faith, confidence and love! May not be able to meet the expectations of his superior brick! If he could, he would be the perfect manager!
Sid and I were having a conversation during which he deduced that I would make an incredible manager. I defied that his perception is wrong, for I am having a tough time managing my subordinates. Well, here is my problem! I have a small team of just three people. Since I am at the threshold of a managerial role, I was offered or rather ordered to monitor three people; just three people. This shouldn’t be tough, isn’t it? But what I thought would be a smooth ride, soon turned into a roller-coaster ride.
I have these three people with three different attitudes, three different aspirations and three different approaches towards their work. Their wavelengths are different and they lack even an inch of cohesion amidst themselves. I feel that these people are pulling me in three different directions - each one according to their comfort zone - but neither is the direction where I want to see myself or my team. One dislikes the work I assign, another dislikes the way I assign work and another dislikes me. I approached my manager for intervention, but his answer was that I should sort this out for myself, since I am leading them. True! Taking a cue from his words, I had a one-on-one meeting with my team members. I took the complaints they had against me or their work, and also explained my expectations from them. I tried to motivate them, inspire them, let them know how crucial they are for the company, but to no avail. They would do anything but work for me.
My manager is a wonderful boss to have! He is deft at people management. I have never seen him raise his voice, never treat anyone harshly. Everyone and anyone who speak to him give him utmost respect and he too treats them in the same way. He is touted as the best manager my company ever had. True! Now, I more or less treat my team the same way as my angel manager treats me, but nay, I don’t seem to get even a 1% return on my investment. The big question is, what is going wrong? Am I lacking the so-called managerial skills? Or is it that my team are killer sharks?
Lots of managers have their unique, distinguished - given a chance, patented as well - methods of getting their team’s act together. So which one is the perfect manager, is a bit difficult to decide, because each methods implemented by the managers are liked by some and disliked by some. Ultimately, from the top level bricks’ perspective, the work delivered is more important than the way the work was achieved. So managers are smooth, they are harsh, they are commanding, they are demanding, they are dependant on you, they care a fiddling about you, they crown you, they crucify you. What not?
Rock told this quite sometime back, that his manager is BOB. Before you presume that his manager’s name is Bob, or try to expand the abbreviation, let me announce that neither it’s the manager’s name nor does that expand to anything. Rock has a fabulous explanation of BOB. The Bs are the ears and the O is the head. Anything told to the manager, goes into one ear (B), passes through the hollow (O) and exits from the other ear (B). The incredible manager!
Sid has a supportive manager! He claims that his manager makes him feel like he is in a sporting arena and not in an office and always keeps challenging him. Fun@work! Well, Sid has the perfect ingredients in his work. Sid also explained why his manger is successful and an award winner as well.
1. He gives utmost importance to people’s career objectives both long and short term
2. Knows when to lead and when to follow.
3. Is neither too loose nor micromanages people.
Nice traits for a manager. Quite obviously, he is giving the required freedom to his team and hence able to bring out the best in them. The incredible manager!
And my buddy KP has a tragic tale to narrate! His manager is a dumber who extracted work out of this bloke as if he was squeezing a lemon. Despite being the star performer, only his weaknesses were highlighted and caustic remarks hurled at him. KP was nearly broke unable to withstand the lunatic pressure his iron-hand manager exerted on him. I pity this dude who converted most of his Sundays into workdays. Adding insult to injury was his appraisal, where he was underrated claiming that his work was below par. His manager is very inhuman and team members are just resources to him. So put the resources aka sugarcanes into the crushing machine and get the juice out of them. Prove to your superior bricks that you have managed well and get rewarded. The incredible manager!
Three different managers, three different attitudes, three different approaches towards team members. Maybe I should try each of these methods on my team to tame the sharks. Am I going to be the next Incredible Manager?
