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What’s Your Style?
Sometimes life throws us a
curve. We think we’ve got it
together, and we’re doing
the right thing – only to find out
that we didn’t really know
what the right thing was in the first
place.
Take Michael for
example. As a department manager in a
major
corporation, Michael had 24
employees under his supervision. He
was kept fairly busy
supervising those employees, ensuring
quotas were met, and
reporting to his supervisors. Michael
also
spent a fair amount of time
trying to impress those supervisors
and the corporation’s upper
management; you see, Michael was on
a quest to climb the
corporate ladder and was working hard for a
promotion.
When the promotional
opportunity arrived, Michael was confident.
His department had met their goals; he had made sure of that.
He had become quite good at
assigning duties and delegating
responsibilities and
following through with employees who didn’t
or couldn’t fulfill those
tasks. Frankly, he thought of the
interview process for the
promotion as a formality – he was by
far the best candidate.
The morning of the
interview, Michael entered the conference
room in his power suit and
tie, prepared to recite his
accomplishments to his
supervisors. Imagine his surprise when
he looked around the table
and not one supervisor or
administrator was
present. The entire committee consisted
of
employees in his department
- the very employees under his
management! Their roles quickly reversed as one employee
explained that the company
decided those best able to determine
if a manager should be promoted
were the employees he worked
for. Michael was stunned – he didn’t work for
them at all –
they worked for him!
That is where Michael was
wrong. The company believed that a
manager’s role is to make it
easier for employees accomplish
their jobs, to remove any
obstacles in their way, and to make
sure they had the all the
tools and training they needed to get
the job done. In essence, his job was to help them! Michael
was crestfallen as he
realized that he had been managing his
department under an entirely
different philosophy, assuming his
job was to give orders, and
his subordinates were to follow
them. Michael’s management style had backfired; if
he had
helped his employees, they
most certainly would have recognized
and rewarded his
contributions to their team.
Put yourself in Michael’s
shoes. Imagine being told you lost
your job but could reapply,
all you had to do was receive the
recommendations of your
subordinates or coworkers. Would you
want
your fate resting in their hands?
-30-
Gregory Scott Reid, #1 best
selling author The Millionaire
Mentor, Positive Impact,
and co-author Wake up…Live the life you