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!