Management blues

A lot of us who would have been happier as mechanics went into management. With auto mechanics, there is such a thing as competence. With management? I don't think so. Garrison Keillor

It's been a quiet week here Lake Woebegone - make that, the office.  Time that I had thought I would be able to spend figuring out Moodle has instead gone into updating job descriptions. It's salary negotiation time for non-affiliated employees and current job descriptions are needed. Amazing how roles in this department change in a very short time as new technology-dependent projects begin, others mature, and some die. (And it seems like only yesterday the Corvus networks needed trouble-shooting.)

I tried using the discussion forums in Moodle to aid in the job revision process. I learned that I have hired a bunch of comedians.  Good grief. There is potential in using some form of online collaboration, however, and we will keep at it.

Management and supervision is something I've learned though the college of hard knocks and it's nothing that's come naturally to me. I like the planning, coaching and mentoring part; I dislike the tough guy, deadlines, get-yer-ass-in-gear bits. Although I've found I'm pretty good at conflict resolution. Not that we ever have conflicts here ;-)

My basic law of successful supervision has always been: Hire people who don't need to be supervised. For the most part this has worked well. To make it work even better, though, I continue to find that I need to improve the clarity of my expectations. Tough sometimes when working in an area like technology in which deadlines, budgets, and buy-in are all rather, shall we say, flexible.

I was delighted to read in the Creating Passionate Users blog (one of my favorites), a piece by Kathy Sierra called Death by Micromanagement: The Zombie Function Sierra asks:

Do you have a micromanager?
Or are you a micromanager? If you demonstrate any of these seemingly admirable qualities, there's a big clue that you might be making zombies.

1. Do you pride yourself on being "on top of" the projects or your direct reports? Do you have a solid grasp of the details of every project?
2. Do you believe that you could perform most of the tasks of your direct reports, and potentially do a better job?
3. Do you pride yourself on frequent communication with your employees? Does that communication include asking them for detailed status reports and updates?
4. Do you believe that being a manager means that you have more knowledge and skills than your employees, and thus are better equipped to make decisions?
5. Do you believe that you care about things (quality, deadlines, etc.) more than your employees?

Answering even a weak "yes" to any one of these might mean you either are--or are in danger of becoming--a micromanager. And once you go down that road, it's tough to return.

I am blessed to have a boss, Ed the Superintendent, who displays none of these characteristics.  I am a little shakey on a couple personally.

Any tips for successful management you'd care to share?

Comments

[Barry]

Two questions my best managers have asked on an established periodic basis (monthly, weekly, etc.):
What are you working on?
What do you need?
I used these with my 5th graders to positive effect (but the period was most likely shorter ;-).

[Ivan Chew]

Hi Doug, I was just commenting in another blog about this book I read. Then I remembered your post. I founf this book useful: "Becoming a manager: How new managers master the challenges of leadership" by Linda A. Hill (took some notes if you care to read it - http://tinyurl.com/7llnb)
The book deals with the transition, of a new manager, from an individual contributor/ specialist to being a manager. Though the research involved people in brokerage & IT industries, the problems & issues faced are the same for libraries. Librarians get moved to management positions and would face exactly the same issues described in the book. That's my experience.