Making better managers

Dilbert 18 July 2008

How true.

I haven’t mentioned recently the business idea I’m working on, but it’s still alive and on the horizon. I’ve been all about screenplay for a while, and the Humans At Work program has been on the back burner. No regrets — writing is better — but I’m determined not to let it die on the vine, either. So here’s an update for those who are interested.

Humans At WorkSM is a training program specifically designed to ground new managers in the basic skills of managing human beings. Because that’s what no one ever teaches us… and we bruise the hell out of each other learning on the job. It’s my experience that managing people well is a) the most important thing we can do in the workplace to ensure that the business succeeds in the long term, and b) not rocket science. Management (like communication, and marriage, and sex, and friendship, and pretty much every other relationship) is about behavior. It’s about skills, models, ways of being and doing, no different at its core than learning how to drive properly or understanding that you don’t shoot your neighbor just because his dog is barking (no matter how tempted you might be…).

So I’ve developed an intensive curriculum to help new managers start from a good base, so they can build experience in constructive ways rather than by damaging people around them through sheer ignorance. The curriculum is done (just needs a few tweaks). I’m building the website. And I’ve made some decisions that I think will raise a few eyebrows and possibly make some folks think I’m an idiot. Or maybe the whole thing will sink without a trace. It’ll be interesting to see how it all plays out.

I hope I can finish the site soon. It’s just fussy gruntwork at this point, and I need to buckle down and do it. But I also need to write an original screenplay, and plot out a YA novel, and get ready for more work on the current screenplay, and eat dinners and drink wine and see friends and dance and go to the movies and the park and and and… and it’s already July. It’s not stunningly original of me to say Oh wow, it’s true, time really does go by faster as you age. But oh, if only I’d known what I like to do and be, and had the skills to make it happen when I was 20, when I also had so much more energy.

But that’s not generally how life works. And you know what? If that’s the way it is, that’s cool. Knowing, being skilled, being confident, having focused passions as opposed to muddy longings — if I were given the choice between being 20 as I was, or 47 as I am, I choose now. This is better.

Hmm. Not sure how I got here from Dilbert, but there you go, sometimes the path is not straight.

4 thoughts on “Making better managers”

  1. I think being a good manager is all about valuing our differences along with the fine art of persuasion. Listening is more important than talking. This is difficult for me because I love to talk.

    One of the most effective managers I ever workd for told us that his goal was to work himself out of a job; that we would run things well even if he wasn’t there. Anyway, good on you. Management is an undervalued skill.

  2. Yes to everything you’ve said, especially the listening. I think communication skills are the heart of good management, and I spend a lot of time on them in the program curriculum.

  3. That’s so cool Kelley. I have worked in customer service and retail for most of my working life and I have had very few GOOD managers. I’ve had a lot of managers that are decent people when you get them away from work, but not a whole lot that can manage people. The worst jobs I’ve had are the ones where I’ve had managers that couldn’t communicate.

    Some places I’ve worked (including the place I’m working now), it’s seemed that even when my immediate managers haven’t been incompetent/assholes, the rules or structures of the larger corporation have necessitated that employees are treated in such a way that is exploitive or dehumanizing.

    It sucks.

    I know that unions can get out of hand sometimes, but it really is sad how a lot of jobs have anti union policies, because for a lot of jobs, there really is no way for employees to advocate for themselves. And a lot of jobs can be very exploitive – they just see workers as resources – not as humans.

    Please let us know when the site is up! I want to pass the url on to my manager – anonymously.

  4. JB, I’ll definitely be providing the url when it’s all ready — I want to spread the information as far and wide as possible, and I’m hoping that the internet will pitch in and help with that.

    It’s such a damn shame that people don’t manage each other better, because it’s not an arcane skill. Almost anyone can do a reasonable job if they are given a few decent tools (especially communication and decision-making skills) and a minimal amount of support from the company. It just doesn’t have to be this hard on people. We don’t have to make each other so miserable.

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