SECTION TWO - MANAGEMENT GUIDELINES

 

 

ASSUMPTIONS

 

1.         Good leaders are visible, active and leave others feeling more motivated (strategic actors).

 

2.         Managers don’t do things themselves, but rather through others. Plan to delegate everything you re currently doing or “penetrating”.

 

GUIDELINES

 

1.         Lead by example.

 

a.               You set the pace for everyone else; don’t settle for mediocrity.

 

b.               Develop at least one distinctive competence that you do better than anyone else.

 

c.               Visibility and giving time are motivating.

 

2.         Manage By Wondering Around (MBWA); the oil that makes it all happen.

 

a.               Ask five levels of questions and listen acceptingly to get information.

 

b.               Invest in “time management” and interpersonal skills to control the job and not the reverse.

 

c.               Avoid procrastination by “swiss cheesing” big problems.

 

d.               Write plans and small components for 1 or 2 big opportunities.

 

e.               Real time To-DO lists for all functional area managers.

 

f.                Instill a sense of can-do and urgency in stretch quantities.

 

g.               Creative use of deadlines, but not at the expense of quality and mastery.

 

h.               Measure and communicate any positive progress. Good news vehicles - crediting statements, meetings and newsletters.

 

RESULTS

 

a.               Things get done. Same old complaints stop.

 

b.               Responsibilities are identified. Positive momentum and spirit start to build.

 

c.               Initiative-taking spreads.

 

d.               Continued growth, stimulation and excitements; ruts and boredom are dissolved.

 

e.               Start upward spirals.

 

Be careful to avoid thoughtlessness and belief in quick fixes.

 

4.         For troops - be a pathfinder; a solution planner; create measuring and reward systems; set guiding values, then get out of the way.

 

a.               Troops work 140% hard and 80% smart, but learn from small mistakes. Company pays a “tuition expense” for these lessons.

 

b.               Management free to spend more time penetrating new areas and keeping growth going.

 

c.               Reform egotistical, workaholic managers. Glory hounds harm the team output.

 

5.         Don’t be: a maintainer; functional micro-decision maker; or a victim of reverse delegation.

 

6.         Be a motivating and trustworthy communicator:

 

a.               Regardless of your job, be a salesman selling win-win initiatives.

 

b.               Stay in touch continually with the most influential constituents.

 

c.               Always think of the future significance of what you say or contract for.

 

d.               Never say anything about a person that you wouldn’t say to their face.

 

e.               Don’t lie. Keep quiet at least.

 

f.                Don’t tell secrets. There are no secrets.

 

g.               Keep promises - and those that others think you made. Trust is the miracle currency for progress.

 

h.               Be a winner - smile when you win and when you lose. Don’t be defensive.

 

7.         Communicate values to the troops many ways.

 

a.               Written; signs; sermons; case discussions.

 

b.               Goal: to instill guidelines that channel energy and improve micro-decisions.

 

8.         Instill relevancy, enthusiasm and fun into the workplace; it must be more than a job (see Personnel - High Performance Environment).

 

9.         Develop “Ideal Coach” attributes and be a good “programmer” of winning skills.

 

a.               Interpersonal management skills.

 

b.               Rule of 5 - 7 and 1 - 10.

 

10.      Practice at “leadership core skills”.

 

a.               Time management

 

b.               Inter-personal skills

 

c.               Problem solving

 

d.               Listening

 

e.               Public speaking

 

11.      Negotiate with employees, customers and suppliers using measurable, objective standards. Always look for (+) pie-growing, multiple-win solutions.

 

a.               Read “Getting To Yes”. (Search for it on Amazon.com)

 

b.               Be considered fair and firm.

 

c.               Build loyalty, trust, partnership spirit and goodwill accounts.

 

12.      Solve problems as well as defusing the background history and emotion (e.g.: an emotional customer with a small problem).

 

a.               Be whole brained in outlook and thinking. Remember the importance of image, ceremonies, customers and other emotionally-packed or subjective opinions.

 

b.               Be flexible, open-minded, cool and a good listener. There are lots of OK answers, if employees own them and act. “Guidelines” allow leeway.

 

c.               Check the facts with other sources if possible before decisive actions. Don’t make decisions until you have to.

 

d.               Look for “system solutions” that kill several birds with one stone.

 

01.   Be bi-focal and know where the basket is.

02.   Look for four-way win economics for stakeholders.

03.   Optimize the dimensions of: merit; equality; humanity; and behavior.

 

e.               Make decisions in the “heads-up and action”, opportunity stage; not the heads-down and reactive”, danger stage: or worse - the “heads-down and in-action”, crisis stage. Lots of small adjustments grow people and organizations better than big, costly, reactive, critical adjustments.

 

f.                Have a judgment, experience, good guidelines and a desire to be an artist, not a scientific manager. Have a sense of rhythm and chemistry.

 

13.      Have courage and self-confidence (incremental G.F.I. factor) to:

 

a.               Initiate change when things are fine.

 

b.               Stick to values in tough times.

 

c.               Hire people better than you.

 

d.               Be an innovative subordinate and ensnare boss in good practices.

 

e.               Deal with mistakes; the acid test for good managers.

 

f.                Make an authentic “one minute apology”.

 

14.      No one is smart enough to run a company anymore. Employees will run themselves more and more.

 

a.               Balance decentralization  VS.            Balkanization

Anarchy

Lethargy

 

b.               Invest in guideline training.

 

c.               Create a high performance environment that induces desired behavior.

 

The following (15-23) are influenced by “The Tao Of Leadership” by John Heider. 1986.

 

15.      Love and the balance of all methods are the two greatest keys to leading.

 

16.      Give up ego, selfishness and your desires in order to:

 

a.               Secure others’ desires.

 

b.               Enable others growth.

 

c.               Teach so that the message isn’t out-shined by ego.

 

d.               T out-shined by ego.

 

e.               Don’t go for your successes, but others.

 

17.      Turn every negative into a positive. Conflict into a creative option. A problem into an opportunity. A mistake to a lesson. A trying experience into patience. An unattractive person into a negative role-model of what not to be.

 

18.      Be a student of natural processes:

 

a.               To identify emerging opportunities.

 

b.               To teach sufficient enlightenment not the complex theories of “hyper-trophied, left-brained, articulate incompetents.”

 

c.               Too much enlightenment is confusing and overwhelming.

 

d.               Examples: life cycle; human passages; economic cycles; mastering a skill.

 

e.               If humans are to do it; it must be systematized and simple.

 

19.      Be situational and generally fading with involvement.

 

a.               At start - plants the sapling carefully.

 

b.               In the middle - facilitate growth indirectly with least intervention.

 

c.               At the end - be happy with their final state; it never is what you originally envisioned.

 

d.               Trying to control anyone who has taken root usually fails.

 

20.      Stretch people a bit; otherwise, you can’t rush their growth process faster.

 

a.               Show them the clearest path.

 

b.               Coach them on necessary skills

 

c.               They must grow up themselves and in spite of themselves.

 

d.               Pushing too hard harms progress and motivation in the long-run.

 

21.      Phony expertise or phony anything is neurotic. Say, “I don’t know; what do your think?” - these are great motivators.

 

22.      Punishment doesn’t work.

 

a.               Shed light on the consequences to specific actions and make them responsible.

 

b.               Harsh intervention: shows emotional bias and investment on your part; increases bad judgments; and causes withdrawal and hostility by others.

 

23.      Stimulation or sensationalism is not teaching. Passing the rules of 5 to 7 and 1 to 10 with patience and discipline is teaching.

SECTION TWO - MANAGEMENT GUIDELINES