Hey Manager! We Don't Really Need You.
I took a day off last week and took my family to Disneyland. It's one of the many benefits of living in southern California. We met some friends there and for 10 hours we were literally off the grid in the lands of Tomorrow, Fantasy and Adventure. While we were eating $80 worth of pizza my friend, who also owns his own company, turns to me and says "How can you take a full day off? Do you have someone handling what you do while you are gone?" I simply replied, "Ummm, no." I don't think he heard me because he was on his iPhone for the 20th time handling some crisis at his office. I watched him as he paced in front of Dumbo, sighing as he hung up. He looked at me and said "I don't have anyone who can do what I do." He was really upset that he could not let work go - he was still stuck in the Land of Reality. I was feeling pretty good at that moment, because it was easy for me to enjoy the day and not worry about the office. Yes, I checked email but I did not make ONE phone call to the office and no one called me.
Why? Because I'm a good manager. Really - I am. Don't shake your head... Now I am not a management guru - lord knows I have my faults. I am in no way perfect. But one thing I do know is this: The sign of a good manager is that the company can operate while he/she is away. I attribute this to effective delegation and efficient autonomy. Let me explain... Too often people delegate the "crappy" tasks - the grunt work - the stuff that no one wants to do. This is not effective delegation - this is unloading and demeaning. Effective delegation is when you give up the tasks that you really want to do - the fun things - the exciting tasks - the challenges. By doing this you empower your staff and show a great deal of trust. If the staff is successful with these tasks you now know that you can rely on them with the "important things". Now even the best of "delegators" suffer from micromanaging - meaning they hover, pass judgment and don't let go completely of the task. It shows a complete lack of trust. This is where efficient autonomy comes in. You must allow your staff to work on their own and give them the chance to do their job; it's why you hired them in the first place. If you stay too involved then your staff cannot and will not succeed. Why do I call it efficient autonomy? Because at the end of the day you are still a manager and it's your job to set your staff up to succeed. You have to give them the tools and show them the path - you have to teach them to be productive - so in essence you are allowing them to work on their own, while guiding and leading. This makes for greater efficiency and productivity. And in the end, if your staff is successful then you are successful and you look like a rock star. Most importantly allow your staff to adhere to their own style (of course within reason so as not to damage the company's reputation or the brand). I always tell my staff "I don't care how you get it done, just do it within budget and by the due date". This has always been my philiosphy and it seems to work. In fact it's the reason I never did well in math in High School. I always got the right answer, but I got to it in my own way and NOT the way my teachers wanted me to; they didn't like the path I took. Seems to me they didn't trust me and my methods - I guess they weren't good managers.
