Recycled Bullsh-IT

Having ranted extensively on how not to manage (Be a Cracking Post-COVID Chief, Don’t Step in the Leadership, There’s No IT in Team), I thought I’d share my early experiences of being a rubbish manager.

I was three years into my first job when I was given my first management role – looking after some poor new graduate trainee who’d just started at our company. I don’t know who was more worried, me or her. Growing up a nerdy geek and working in IT didn’t adequately prep me with the many social and communication skills needed to take an active part in an organisation, particularly when interacting with other wetware rather than computer terminals. To reduce the embarrassment on both sides, I did what all techies did pre-internet when faced with a problem. I bought some textbooks on management and slavishly studied management techniques.

Most of the books blathered on about: powerful performance appraisals, making meetings magical, projecting power like a pro, motivating mass minions, smart strategic speaking, and other Bullsh*t Bingo.  Given I just didn’t want to make a fool of myself, none of this nauseating nonsense seemed helpful. Luckily, I’d also picked up a slim volume entitled: ‘Leadership and the One Minute Manager’. This small book, little more than a pamphlet, was one of a series of self-help books from Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson (including ‘The One Minute Manager’ and ‘Who Moved My Cheese?)’ written in a conversational storytelling mode which was refreshing at the time but has been endlessly copied and feels a bit hackneyed now.

The two nuggets of insight I got from LatOMM were the introduction of SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Trackable) goal setting, and the concept of Situational Leadership. SMART goals are now pretty much de rigeur, but SMART is still a really useful acronym for newbies to check whatever they are planning or delivering. Situational Leadership, on the other hand, seems less well known, but was a godsend to me in my early management days.

Situational Leadership

For those not familiar with Situational Leadership, the basic principle is that there is no single effective management style, but that the best leaders adapt their style for different individuals and tasks. The four leadership styles are: Directing, Coaching, Supporting & Delegating. Here’s my take and experience of these leadership styles:

Directing: Inexperienced managers sometimes think that the only style of management is directing – tell people what to do, closely monitor how they are doing, and check everything to make sure it is right. This is fine if you have enthusiastic, willing employees who are new to their job and don’t have the knowledge and skills to carry out the tasks initially. However, more experienced staff will get quickly irritated by this micro-management and will see it as an insult to their competence. They are also likely to be wily enough to make your life hell in return by forcing you to do all the work instead.

Coaching: Coaching involves providing ongoing advice and guidance, as well as closely supervising their activities, so that they become more confident and capable of doing the work themselves. Useful for the undermotivated (and possibly lazy) in-duh-viduals who are expert at presenteeism, but don’t seem to deliver. If their commitment remains low then you may be better managing them out of the business, or at least out of your team.

Supporting: You may also have some highly gifted workers who are great at their jobs but can be variable in their ability to delivery. They may be dealing with personal, family or health (including mental) concerns and require more support, both professional and pastoral. Or they may just (need to) be highly strung, with an attitude problem or been used to weak management before. These divas can be ‘supported’ into better behaviours, or supported out of the building, as necessary.

Delegation: The other common style used by newbie or weak managers is to totally devolve responsibility for the tasks to your direct reports, close the door and hope it all turns out OK. Of course, true delegation is a worthy goal for team development as it shows confidence in your people to deliver. But it only works if the delegates have the competence and commitment to work without supervision. Even then, these high performing teams still need some TLC to keep them loyal, otherwise they’ll go work for someone who will occasionally stroke their egos when needed.

So, did these books help me to manage? Well, my first direct report left me within a few months to work for someone who knew what they were doing. Most of the rest of those who have worked for me over the years are no longer in therapy, and many are now mangling their own teams, so I like to think I have successfully passed on my leadershit skills to the next generation.

John “Just A Minute” Moe