The Good Manager
A Guide for the Twenty-First Century ManagerBy Dean GualcoiUniverse, Inc.
Copyright © 2010 Dean Gualco
All right reserved.ISBN: 978-1-4502-0657-0Contents
Introduction................................................11The Changing Profession.....................................17The Manager.................................................18A Collapse..................................................20The Blame Game..............................................21The Image of a Manager......................................25A Rewarding Profession......................................26Summary: The Changing Profession............................30Like What You Do............................................32Summary: Like What you Do...................................38Knowledgeable...............................................40Professional and Personal Experiences.......................45Knowledge of Your Job.......................................49Knowledge of Your Company...................................50Knowledge of Your Industry..................................51Summary: Knowledge..........................................55Solid Organizational Skills.................................57Ability to Plan.............................................57Ability to Delegate.........................................60Ability to Manage Time......................................63Summary: Organizational Skills..............................68Work Hard...................................................69Drive.......................................................71Sacrifice...................................................74Summary: Work Hard..........................................75Make Work Fun...............................................77Care about People...........................................79Find the Right Person for the Right Job.....................82An Extraordinary Attitude...................................87Summary: Make Work Fun......................................90Be a Good Person............................................91The Last Word...............................................99References..................................................104
Chapter One
The Changing Profession
The collapse of our economy has had a profound impact on the economic, political, and social fabric of our nation. Following catastrophic events of this nature, there is a natural tendency to find someone or something to blame, and two entities have received the most attention: the federal government and the managerial profession. The inability of government to accurately forecast and prevent this collapse has been well chronicled in a host of books and articles. Similarly, the mistakes by management to competently manage its business have grabbed the nation's attention, provoking anger at some manager's unethical and duplicitous conduct. This anger has been aimed at the managerial profession at large rather than to a minute segment of the profession that acted irresponsibly and unprofessionally.
I am convinced, though, that the image and profession of a manager can be rehabilitated. Identifying the attributes of a good manager, as outlined in this book, is an important contribution to that effort. First, however, it is beneficial to provide a broad context on the role of the manager in organizations along with how the circumstances and events of the past few years have fundamentally altered the profession, thus requiring a new way of thinking from today's manager.
THE MANAGER
"Manager" is a difficult term to define in business. This seems odd to some, especially since thousands of books have been written on the art and science of management, not including the countless books written about organizations, governments, and businesses, all in which a manager plays a key role in their success and failure. Yet, it is surprising how few managers can give a succinct and refined definition of management or understand the principal tenants of the managerial profession.
Let's start with a fairly basic definition of a manager: a manager is someone who has the responsibility to utilize an organization's material resources and to leverage cooperation from employees in order to attain a goal that is deemed important to the organization's success. What are these resources? Resources primarily revolve around people, money, and property; examples would include employees, computers, budgets, office space, volunteers, etc. Managers hope to utilize these resources in the most efficient and effective manner. By doing so they give the organization to which they belong a better chance of achieving its stated strategic objectives, whether that is producing a product or generating a service.
It is a common misunderstanding of the management profession to believe that managers and leaders are one and the same and that a good manager is also a good leader. A person can be both: some individuals can envision the future of an organization (a key trait of a leader) and then marshal the necessarily organizational resources to achieve that vision (a key role of a manager). I believe, though, that that distinction is more the exception than the rule. Each organizational role, both leader and a manager, has a different skill set, and it is the rare person who possesses both. Steve Jobs is a good example. Steve Jobs was the chief executive of Apple Computers for a number of years after its founding. He parted with the company a few years after its founding, having found that managing an organization is much different, and less interesting, than creating it. Of course, he later made a triumphant return to the top position at Apple Computers, having learned the skills necessary to manage an organization. His recent tenure at Apple Computers is a testament that managerial skills can be learned, if you have the knowledge, desire, and ability to do so.
A few more words need to be said about the distinction between a manager and a leader. Generally speaking, leaders set the overall direction of an organization. They determine the goals that the organization will pursue, and then they select the manager to achieve those goals. Managers, in contrast, have some influence on the direction of the organization but more so on how those goals are achieved. An analogy helps highlight the different roles a leader and a manager play in an organization. As a leader, you would determine the country to visit; as a manager, you would determine the best mode of transportation to get there and where to stay once you were there.
Successful organizations are created by visionary people with an idea or concept for something different and better. This success forces the organization to grow in size and scope; at this point, it often becomes necessary to hire a professional manager as the knowledge and skills necessary to create an organization are different than the knowledge and skills necessary to manage an organization. Leaders and managers both play vital roles in the organization, making it necessary that they possess the required knowledge, skills, and abilities that are unique to their profession, along with an understanding of the economic, political, and social events of the day. And rarely have events so tested the skills and abilities of managers as those occurring since 2008.
A COLLAPSE
Our nation's diminishing respect and confidence in management has been several years coming. We see employees who have lost their jobs, shareholders who have lost their investments, and homeowners who have lost their homes. Trillions of dollars have vanished in the stock market, and we are told that it may take years for the average American to recoup the investment in their home and retirement funds. Entire industries have been outsourced to foreign countries, along with the chance to obtain a solid middle-class job-one with a retirement plan and health benefits-that now seems out of reach for the average American. In fact, the middle-class job has become a faded relic of the past with unemployment hovering at numbers unseen since the last 1970s.
Not many have been immune from this economic reversal that started in 2008. Whether the fault of the federal government or much broader economic forces that have been in effect for decades, there has been a dramatic reversal of the American economy that began in 2008. Yet, somehow, the compensation of managers continues to increase. These often contradictory movements have caused stresses in our political, economic, and social systems, and they have contributed to the negative public perception of managers and their organizations that arose most prominently following the economic collapse in late 2008.
THE BLAME GAME
In this period of great uncertainty and instability, there is something quite American in looking for someone, anyone, to blame for our own and our nation's plight. Should we blame the thousands of real-estate agents and mortgage brokers who sold and financed homes to people who could not afford them? Should we blame the government, which failed to properly oversee the financial markets over the past decade? Should we blame the banks and financial institutions, which developed and promoted high-risk financial instruments that some believe were doomed to fail? Or should we blame those who manage our nation's businesses for their inability to act in a wise and prudent manner? In truth, all deserve some part of the blame. But there is merit to the assertion that at least some blame rests with a most uncomfortable segment of the population: us!
We've heard about the person who lost his home and blames the increase on his adjustable mortgage rate. On further investigation, we find out that the person never had the financial capability to purchase that home in the first place and instead was speculating that the home would go up in value, at which time he could then sell his home for a profit (preferably before interest rates rose and he could no longer afford his monthly payment). We've also heard of individuals who continually borrowed against their home to purchase a new car or build a pool in the backyard; then, when their house not only stopped increasing in value but actually decreased, they found themselves owing more for the house than it was worth. Some facing this situation have chosen to walk away from their financial obligations rather than accept responsibility for their actions and decisions and make good on their contract and word.
There was a segment of the population only too willing to enter into financial transactions without the knowledge necessary to make a competent decision. Some, it may be said, were greedy in accepting the benefits that the financial tools offered (for instance, buying a new home without any down payment or utilizing an adjustable rate mortgage to keep monthly mortgage loan costs down). Greed is not limited to those who tempted the average American to live beyond their means; it was also greedy for average Americans to believe they could enjoy a standard of living beyond their financial abilities to support it.
Some believe their fate would have been different had it not been for some unscrupulous person who took advantage of them and their lack of knowledge or sophistication in understanding the financial transaction that they were undertaking. There are the real-estate agents, mortgage brokers, and financial managers who preyed on a certain segment of the market, principally by creating financial transactions and mechanisms that the average person may not understand and therefore may not have the full knowledge about the actions that they were taking. These predators deserve to be prosecuted and made to pay for their deception. Moreover, some financial institutions and even governmental agencies encouraged the public to spend without saving and to extend financial obligations without prudent reserves, all because the economy appeared to be stable and financially sound. While that may be an optimistic attitude to have, it is not realistic, and the consequences of that optimistic, unrealistic attitude will affect the future of many Americans for years to come.
To be fair, some followed the advice and counsel of those paid to provide fair and honest advice (mortgage brokers, real-estate agents, and others). That said, however, too many borrowed more money than they could repay; too many entered into investments they could not afford; and too many simply lived beyond their means. The financial catastrophe of 2008-2009 rocked the foundation of many families mainly because so few were prepared for the financial correction or contraction that was bound to occur after a period of great economic growth. For many Americans with credit extended far beyond their means and savings too limited to maintain their lifestyle, the strains of our financial systems turned into a collapse, especially for those who were ill-prepared for any downturn in the economy.
We are partly to blame for the financial uncertainty that has become part of our lives. In previous times, we learned that Americans were savers, that they invested part of what they earned, that they believed in a solid work ethic, mutual responsibility, and taking some blame for bad decisions. We were taught to look inward if a mistake was made in order to find where the fault should lie.
Today, though, we tend to look outward first to assign blame and then cast ourselves as the unknowing and unwitting victims of some sort of predator. Indeed, we hear very little about the consequences of our own actions that have caused our financial hardships and instead read incessantly about the handful of individuals who created and promoted these destructive financial instruments that have wreaked havoc in our economy. Many Americans blame corporate managers, whether the CEO of the American Insurance Group (AIG) or the former CEO of General Motors, whose organizations profited from unethical financial transactions. In financial institutions, insurance companies, and the automakers, there is certainly a public face that you can find to blame for the cataclysmic fall of the many companies in these industries, regardless if that blame is justified. No matter who is to blame, there has risen a level of distrust and disgust about the ability and conduct of managers in some organizations, which has been extrapolated to all of corporate America.
Undoubtedly, there were a number of greedy, unscrupulous, and immoral people who were in a position to create great destruction within entire industries and to a wide segment of the American populace. Bad people do bad things; in this case, there were bad managers who adversely affected the fate of numerous organizations, employees, and investors, paralyzing the future of not only many in the business world but the whole of society as well.
These bad managers did not possess the moral and intellectual honesty, in addition to competence, to be stewards of their organization's future. They were impediments to organizations that wanted to take care of the customer, to grow the business reasonably, to create and sustain a quality product or service, and to make a reasonable profit. Profit, contrary to some thought, is not a negative consequence of the American business enterprise, but rather, it is a positive outcome of a person's or organization's honest effort to provide a quality product or service to a customer at a fair price.
An honest effort and fairness are the key tenants of a business, and it falls to managers to have the moral compass and fortitude to be honest and fair and to ensure that their conduct follows certain principles and practices. Not all managers are unscrupulous and immoral, just a select few, but it is those unfortunate few that have brought such damage and devastation to our economy. It is these select few that have tarnished the name and reputation of others in the managerial profession.
THE IMAGE OF A MANAGER
The action of a few managers has tarnished the name and reputation of others in the managerial profession; consequently, organizational managers struggle with a public perception that continues to go down hill. Besides the actions of a few managers that have contributed to the recent economic crisis, there are several other reasons to account for the misperception of managers by the public, with the most important being that managers tend to be blamed for most problems that occur in the organization. If employees are not meeting their goals, there are those who will say their manager is not providing the necessary guidance and support for the employees to excel. If the organization does not meet its goals, blame is typically assigned to management which, to be fair, is charged with the overall direction of the organization.
The second reason that management is not held in high esteem by the general public is because the manager must deliver the bad news to an employee. For example, if an employee is not given a promotion or raise, it is typically the manager who must relate this to the employee. If the employee is given more work, including work that had previously been done by the manager, the employee may feel the manager is not pulling his weight without regard to the added duties and responsibilities that may have necessitated the manager delegating this work to a subordinate. Of course, if any employee is disciplined, up to an including termination, that unfortunate news is typically delivered by the manager.
Third, managers tend to receive greater compensation than nonmanagers, which can be a source of tremendous jealously and envy within the organization. Few nonmanagers who I know believe the compensation managers receive is fair, and instead think such compensation should be more equitably distributed throughout the organization. On the other hand, I know very few nonmanagers who, once they were promoted, would say that their new manager salary is too high and the money should instead be distributed more equitably among staff.
Finally, some employees tend to view a manager's job as less demanding than their own. This thought arises because employees tend to do the more physical work whereas managers tend to do the mental or office-related work. A misperception may arise that the effort of a manager is not as pronounced as a no manager's, but there are certainly more demanding mental stresses within the managerial profession than in nonmanagerial jobs.
A REWARDING PROFESSION
Management is a truly rewarding profession. I know of very few people who willingly turn down a managerial position once offered; instead, those people tend to be dismissive of the profession mainly because they have not as yet joined its ranks or have determined that they may never be offered such opportunities in the future. In either case, their perceptions and beliefs about management may result more from jealously or envy than from the actual consequences of a managerial action. That is unfortunate and, to some, unfair.
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