Find your bus

Apologies for the lack of posting. I’ve been juggling priorities — that’s a standard feature of business life. But what makes my blogging sporadic right now is not that it’s unimportant — it’s that I’m still finding my voice here. I can’t yet dash off a post quickly and confidently. I’m still practicing, still nailing down what this blog is for. What do I want to say here? What am I trying to do?

Those are questions that every blogger needs to answer. But — more to the point — they are questions that every manager needs to answer. Who are you in the management role? What do you want to be in the eyes of your team and your company? What are you trying to do?

If you’re not sure, then nothing you do will be as quick or confident as you’d like. So here’s where you should start when you’re working on improving your management skills. As my old mentor used to say, “If you don’t know where you’re going, any bus will get you there.” Meaning that without a goal in mind, actions can easily become random, and sometimes we end up somewhere we really don’t want to be. A clear vision of yourself as a manager, and clear values, aren’t “fuzzy stuff” — they are essential drivers on your management journey. The vision is your destination: what am I when I am a great manager? The values, and the behaviors that arise from them, are the bus that will get you there.

Take a look at the teaching notes for Session 1 of Humans At Work if you’re interested in doing some of this visualization and values clarification for yourself.

Start by telling your own stories of good and bad managers you’ve known:

• What did the manager do that you thought was right or wrong, effective or destructive? The more specific you can get with this, the better. It’s not enough to decide that someone is a bad communicator (for example) — what specific actions did they take, or what specific words did they say, that you thought showed poor skills?
• Why did they do it? What were they thinking or feeling? What were they reacting to, or trying to accomplish? Here’s where you move from the specific example to form some general values about good management behavior.
• How can you put these values and behavior into action in your own daily work experience? Here’s a hint: you demonstrate values by behavior. Pick a behavior to practice, and then practice it.

Then tell yourself the story of you — as the greatest manager in the world. Answer these questions:

• What do you believe?
• How do you behave?
• How do other people in the organization perceive you?

Now you know where you’re going. Your destination may alter as you learn and grow. That’s fine — the point is to be moving forward toward a specific idea of what you want to be. The story of you will lead you; the stories of others, good and bad, will be your signposts on the way.

In that spirit, if anyone has input into what you’d like to see from this blog, or examples of blogs you think I might want to take lessons from, please leave a comment. I appreciate any help you care to give.