Expand Your Mind: Managing
by Miki Saxon
Management is a dirty word these days; most articles talking about what and how people manage peg the information to ‘leadership’, don’t mention managing and never call them managers.
But they are.
So today I offer you a selection of information about managing.
We’ll start with a McKinsey article that, although it talks about bosses and uses the L word, does a good job spelling out the importance of being tuned into your people
Bosses matter to everyone they oversee, but they matter most to those just beneath them in the pecking order: the people they guide at close range, who constantly tangle with the boss’s virtues, foibles, and quirks.
And although classic management strategy involves being highly visible, according to HBS professor Anita Tucker, just being there isn’t enough.
Managers who merely put in time “walking the floor” are not doing enough when it comes to problem solving; in fact, it can make employees feel worse about their situation.
Next we take a look at what it takes for managers to motivate their people that includes a surprising finding.
The things that make people satisfied and motivated on the job are different in kind from the things that make them dissatisfied.
A fun and informative post from BNET looks at errors made by newly promoted first time managers and provides a link that looks at what companies do to help.
Last year the Institute for Corporate Productivity surveyed hundreds of employees to determine how well their companies helped people make the switch to management.
Finally, a let’s take a look at the question of how young bosses should go about managing older employees. This Harvard Business Review post offers some good basics when it comes to managing, but the idea that the concepts are peculiar to the situation of younger managing older is ridiculous. Read it and tell me if there are any employees that wouldn’t respond well to being managed as described, or any manager who wouldn’t do better managing that way.
And while we are on the subject of young and old I want to share an article that goes a long way to correcting—or at least reminding us—that we really don’t know what someone else is thinking.
I asked her why she had come to the nursing home, and she described the recent passing of her husband after 73 years of marriage. I was overwhelmed by the thought of her loss, and wanted to offer some words of comfort. I leaned in close and spoke.
“I’m so sorry,” I told her. “What has it been like for you losing your husband after so many years of marriage?”
She paused for a moment and then replied: “Heaven.”
Enjoy!
Flickr image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pedroelcarvalho/2812091311/
