My Management philosophy - IV

In the last post, I mentioned that there are certain situations (in fact, this constitutes 80% of what a manager will do!) in my job that I still wonder how to handle effectively. I fool around at times, but often my past experience comes in handy during all these situations. I will tell you how I deal with such situations. Mind you, this is just the way I do things, and perhaps not the best...

Diplomacy

I talk to people everyday. Believe me, it is not easy. At least, not for me. I remember the old saying here, "If you can't convince people, confuse them". This is what most of us, including me, practice daily. It is a 'trade secret' how I handle situations that demand diplomacy, but I don't mind divulging it here.

If you'd known me five years back and not since, you wouldn't recognize me now, because I've changed a lot. Lot of that were results of deliberate attempts from me. Not too long ago, I'd just risen upto a fact of life. I'd just moved in from a much smaller Indian city to Bangalore, the silicon valley of India in pursuit of a job. There were several issues with me during that time, but one of the major ones was that I was unable to communicate well with the team. I talked too less, and people used to read words of their choice from my silence. I used to depend on emails a lot during those times, and used it almost everytime that just a casual chat should've done it. It came down heavily on me, but I didn't realize it until some strong feedbacks came from my manager. It made me aware of how poor a speaker I am.

I attended a few sessions on business communication lectures and read a few books on the subject. I never bothered to practice really, but used to observe people when they talked, read a lot of articles and whitepapers. The next thing I know is I can talk endlessly on any subject related to technology, people or mostly anything at all - the last two, however, to a considerably less extent than the first one.

My observation of people, helped me tremendously with identifying various situations and acting on them, most times reactively and sometimes pro-actively (I admit this is one area, where I am still trying to improve). I can now visualize the priorities and alternatives of almost any situation that crops up at work on a daily basis. My reading habits helped me a lot in expanding my vocabulary that in turn improved my business communication many folds. Over the years, I knew what to talk, when and how? Everytime I'd to tactfully deal with some situations, I gracefully remember my previous bosses, about the words they uttered during similar situations, and just enacted them. It worked like a charm! Diplomatic talking is mostly to do with all this, and carefully convincing people. I do the first part well, but am not quite sure about the convincing part!

'Motivating' people

We already discussed about this in one of my previous posts. MOtiviating people is an impossible job, unless people themselves are willing TO BE motivated. HOwever, there is one thing that managers can do. Talk to people about the importance of the job, how costly it can be for the individual or the organization if the job is not done. While talking is important, listening too is. Listening will give a lot of insights about the strengths and weaknesses of people and even into the lives of individuals.

I think, although it's important for people to improve on the weaknesses, people must build on their strengths more. It is one of the most often ignored fact that our strengths cause us to excel, and being poor to mediocre in our weaknesses doesn't really count, unless when people are compared during which time the exclusion factor comes in the form of weaknesses(We will talk about comparisons soon). Strengths almost always contribute to a confident self, and causes whole environment also to have confidence in the individual. ALl of this results in improved productivity.

Conveying the bad news

One of the most needed traits of a manager, but extremely difficult to do a perfect job in. One thing that I've learnt here is never to start with the bad news first. Always start on a positive note, when you begin conversation, else peoples' minds start to wander and become too difficult to chase. Another thing that I learnt the hard way is not to attempt too much of intro. Don't attempt to patch up, believe me it's not going to help you or anybody, but will only do more harm. Come straight to the point. Once the news is out, never leave the team to ponder alone, instead join hands with the rest of the team to work out alternative plans. I'm far from
being perfect at it, but I can 100% appreciate the need for it.

Maintaining 'cool'

I think, this is the most difficult job of all. In reality it mayn't be that difficult and many of you may disagree, but I had very bad experiences with this one. I had literally shouted at people, in the past, for various reasons. When people started to shout back at me, only then did I realize that something is wrong! I did a self-appraisal and found that I'd set standards in my mind; if I don't find people living upto those, I concluded that they're not good enough. If you ask me, of all the so-called 'dirty work' a manager has to do, grading/comparing of people is one of the worst. Standards can be set to processes or work progress, but it is best not to set standards for people - fundamentally, because people behave in umpteen different modes all of which can't be defined or rated. If everybody behaved in strictly logical/rational ways, then we would be rather be working with robots than humans.

So, approaching people with no pre-set standards is absolutely criticial to maintaining the cool.

Again, I've to admit here that talking is much easier than done. Only time will tell, how well I'll do on all these...

My Management philosophy - III

We will talk about the typical challenges of a (people) manager in this and the next part of the series. There are several that I face on a daily basis, but many of those are probably specific to my case. So, as far as possible, I will talk only about issues that are common. I am no expert in any of these, in fact a beginner in most. I struggle almost daily on all these aspects. When I started off as manager, it was a painful life and I hated it.

This was when one of my previous managers came to my rescue with his most favorite quote, that he oft repeated in front of his entire team. I took refuge and used his quote as my defence to my poor performance as manager. He told me, "People management is one of the dirtiest jobs you could ever land up in", not once, but many times. He didn't tell me this during one of those pastime conversations, but during our 1-1's and I thought he was pretty serious about it. He knew that I aspired to be a manager some day, and was also aware of ambitions and my technical abilities. He probably wanted me to think it over, in the light of his own experiences with management. He perhaps had been the greatest influence in my professional life. I blindly followed his words and lived upto what he told me. I hated to manage people ever since. I invented stories to explain my failures as a manager. I used up all my energy to convince people that management IS indeed the dirtiest of all jobs and hence justified my failure.

All this, until a year ago when I started realizing the potential of great management. During the last year, I experienced many positive turns that great and responsible management can bring to the products and to the lives of many, including me. I started developing a new positive attitude towards management, slowly but steadily. I admit, I am still not a completely transformed guy. I still feel difficult when confronted with certain situtations. Even now, I am left confused at times about how best should I react to certain situations? But, no more does my blood turn cold and no more do I've sleepless nights, as it used to happen to me a few years before. Though I struggle at times, I'm more confident in facing them because of the following reasons.

1. Over the years, I discovered that all managers struggle more or less equally during such situations. Now I know that 'the perfect manager' is just a concept, not a reality! It's a myth. Nobody will treat you like a new kid in the block, unless you are (or rather just keep imagining you're) from another planet.

2. At one time in my career, I used to believe that if managers commit mistakes, they're unpardonable. Last few years in my career taught me, though it can prove extremely costly and should be avoided as far as possible, it is not an unthinkable offence for managers to tread the wrong path. It happens. After all, there is nothing 'God'ly about managers; they're humans too. In reality, I've seen many guys that blundered extremely badly, but ultimately got away with that. Not good, but it happens sometimes during situations when the system already has blunders worse than what you just experienced! Bigger blunders eclipse smaller ones, as long as severity is directly proportional to the organization hierarchy. Else, you're just unlucky.

3. All problems have solutions, although the solution could be a lot more easier, if none had blundered in the first place.

4. I'm no more a kid that can remain shut off from dealing with difficult situations, but face them. So, to remain fit is rather a necessity for me now, to survive in this world. I don't have a choice!

In my next post, we will discuss the key challenges and my own 'solutions' to them...Most of them, I learnt the hard way. I am not sure, if they are THE solutions, but at least those will not worsen the situations anymore!