Management in Jobs/Careers and Leadership

[Forever]

I would like to have a discussion on how those manage their employees and get work moving and what are the characteristics/perspectives of a leader?.

This is not only towards Te types even though they’re in general probably the most interested in this type of work.

Common issues?
Common ways/tactics of resolving conflict?

Would consistency in personality and effort matter?

Are there times where you will have to tone it down and let others handle the conflict? If so, when, how, and why?

Should certain attitudes be avoided?

Please allow yourself to the fullest extent to share your thoughts about this.

 

[Stigmata]

I've been in management for around 3-months on my current job.

My management style is like this: I try to be the manager who I'd want to manage me, and I don't ask anything of my employees that I wouldn't do myself -- I'm not intentionally overly negative or heavy-handed. I like to get people pumped up by highlighting their positives and using humor to say what I want to say what I want to say while making it more palatable.

The title of Manager (Honestly, having a specific title serves to embarrasses me more than anything) really doesn't do anything for me, personally, so I'm not someone who lets it go to my head. That said, I'm not a complete pushover -- I've had people do things that has caused me to raise my voice and get upset a few times, yet I try to appeal to them logically as to why whatever they did warrants my reaction.

I had one of my senior managers critique me in saying I need to be more boisterous and aggressive in my approach, yet as he was trying to guide me I just thought to myself "yeah, that's not me at all..."

 

[The Cat]

IME a good leader focuses on developing other people, taking responsibility of taking care and creating opportunity for others. Leaders go to others for help and seek out knowledge; they do not wait for it to come to them. Leadership is not a position its an ACTION...

 

[Amberiat]

Leadership is about taking care of others, having initiative to take action, developing the skills of other people and teaching them how to utilize those skills efficiently. Of course, there's much more to it than that, that's just the beginning.

Taking credit for the work/ideas of others should be avoided. A leader must keep the community together and manage their motivation levels, trying to keep them as high as possible. Stealing credit disrupts the community, creates dissonance and naturally, reduces motivation.

A certain level of consistency is preferred because not all people can adapt very quickly and their performance could suffer if the one in charge is inconsistent and they can't keep up with the changes that are happening around them all the time.

In conflict the leader has the job of solving things rationally and impartially and guiding both parties towards understanding the others point of view.

 

[Bush]

It's more of a people business than folks seem to think. Usually it's about that much more than whatever sort of business you're actually running. Let everyone else have the smarts in whatever it is that they do and work to mash it all together. At the same time, you shouldn't be afraid to do some stuff that's "beneath you," because leading by example means speaking through action.

Understand the market if applicable. You don't want to march your team off of a cliff.

Consistency matters, especially in setting up and enforcing expectations. You want to make sure you're on the same page, so that you don't have to course correct when it's too late.

Adaptability can be had by working closely with your folks and really guiding them along the path toward whatever it is you want to adapt to. Adaptability and consistency may seem opposed at first, but it's all about steering no matter where it is that you're going.

Don't half ass the planning. Get used to breaking down problems into components in terms of what needs to be done and how long each step is going to take.

At the same time, a whole lot of the complexities in any system lie at the interfaces between those components, so you need to have a solid understanding of how they will fit. It helps if you give your team a sense of where each of their tasks fit too, because context absolutely matters in developing the little pieces. Otherwise you have folks designing jigsaw puzzle pieces without knowing how they're supposed to mash together with their neighbors, let alone what the whole picture looks like. Otherwise nothing is going to fit.

Ask questions so that you can understand where the other person is coming from before jumping to conclusions.

 

[rav3n]

Used to be a career manager, prior to shifting to consulting for assorted reasons, including winding down for early retirement.

My style was the expectation that people leave their E-mo at the door and do the job they're well paid to do. If staff become embroiled in office gossip/politics, the instigators were shut down whether through termination or moving them around. If employees were in conflict, they were expected to work it out and if they couldn't, that's when I'd get involved.

What really helps is to hire the right person for the job, including hiring for fit with others and office culture. That's 99% of the problems eliminated.