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June 10, 2004
The General Traps
Some of these are things I’ve heard about, some are things I’ve done. You may be able to tell which are which.
- Please understand that ‘keeping your hand in’ is just for your own vanity. You haven’t got time to read the books properly, you can’t keep properly in practice, and when you do start getting involved you’re slower and more likely to break things. Remember, your job is perspective, and keeping the machine running properly. The next is a special case of the first. Let’s say you’ve got a designer working for you, and there’s a junior designer working for them. Some problem comes along with the junior designer. DO NOT go and fix the problem with the junior designer yourself. Try and get the designer to fix it. Lead them through possible solutions. If you fix it, then all you’re doing is undermining their authority, and meaning you’re going to have to micromanage their staff too. And take pity on them, in a year or two they’ll be in your position. Do you want them to have as little people-management experience as you?
- Another absolute golden rule - particularly in our business - is Don’t Piss Away Your Staff’s Work. They will never forgive you for it. If you ask them to write a report on something, read it. If there is work they’ve done that has to be in for a deadline, don’t be the one that forgets and misses it. They won’t trust you as their leader if the work they do goes nowhere through lack of care.
- You are not on Usenet. Don’t get hung up on being right. Creating a culture where people collaborate on ideas isn’t going to work if you insist on crushing everybody who makes the slightest mistake. All you’ll do is reduce creative throughput, and you’ll also miss out on really great germs of ideas because you’re too busy looking for ways to prove how clever you are.
- Shit things happen in business. And while people need to let of steam, and you shouldn’t be an apologist for the failings of the business, it is your job to give your staff perspective and a good understandable reason why the bad things have happened. Say that you’ve developed 20 ideas and only two were commissioned. Don’t slag off the commissioner - it *is* their decision, it’s what the business pays them to do, and there may be factors you just don’t know about that will later make you look stupid. Acknowledge people are upset, but don’t let people assume that everyone else in the business is an arsehole. Even salespeople. It just makes it harder when you suddenly find you have to collaborate.
- Make sure you keep in touch with, and meeting new, people up and down the business chain. You’re going to need a sense of whether plans and projects aren’t working, and to keep an eye on people who are going places for when the next reshuffle comes. And they can be a great sounding board.
- It helps. But it’s not essential.
- As a previously-technical manager, you’re going to be in all sorts of meetings with scary people where your interpersonal skills are going to be pushed to the limit. Practice talking. To your staff. You do at least have something in common with them. It’s higher bandwidth too!
Anyway, let’s get onto things you don’t have to worry about…
Posted by Tom Dolan at June 10, 2004 04:33 PM
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