Empowering Your Managers
"So much of what we call management consists in making it
difficult for people to work." - Peter Drucker
Managing is often equated with controls rather than leading and
developing a business. The manager feels more comfortable and
secure when they are able to put in strict controls on
everything that happens in a business organization. This is so
especially of Senior Managements where the controls and
directing becomes so severe that it erodes any creative freedom
for the middle managers to work towards achieving the goals set
out for them.
Here are a few simple prescriptions to get the best out of your
managers.
Avoid Centralizing Decision Making
This is perhaps one of the best ways to achieve totals control.
You feel by centralizing decision making you will be able to
avoid wrong decisions. While this may be so to some extent who
is to prevent your own wrong decisions. Unless your managers are
able to make mistakes and learn from them you will never be able
to develop expertise through experience. Centralizing decision
making is also the surest method to kill your business growth.
Provide Working Space
The top management often entrust tasks and responsibilities to
their subordinate managers. More often than not any specific
time frames which are comfortable to achieve the given
responsibilities or tasks are discussed. However in their
anxiety or aggressiveness and sometimes over enthusiasm you
start chasing your subordinate for action and results. If you do
it too soon and too often you are severely limited the working
space of your managers. They may be spending more time in
complying with your commands rather than focusing on operational
priorities and important tasks.
If you are not providing sufficient working space for your
managers you are surely heading towards disaster as important
tasks may be getting neglected to escape from your frequent and
aggressive follow ups.
Listen to Your Managers
While experience is an asset it also makes one arrogant and
conceited. Sometimes one tends to believe because he is the
superior, he always right. The Boss Is Always Right principle
looks good only on posters. It doesn't work if you want to build
a Professional organization.
Cultivate the ability to listen to the voice of your managers.
Most times they know better as they are more familiar with the
ground realities. If you decide on their behalf and just issue
orders, you will have clerks in the guise of managers as you
have killed their initiative.
Don't Get Into Petty Details
Once broad goals and objectives are set with specific time
frames and key results are outlined leave your managers to
perform. If you get into too many details and meddle with the
execution at every stage, you may be sure to mess up the entire
process and ultimately the results.
The key to managing effectively is to empower people across the
management structure so that they feel part of the
responsibility and ownership.