Comments on: Management sins http://commadot.com/management-sins/ Started in 1996, commadot.com has been been randomly publishing about UX, technology, Politics, the Jets and my kids. Tue, 18 Nov 2008 15:31:22 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7-beta3 hourly 1 By: Big Think mobile edition http://commadot.com/management-sins/comment-page-1/#comment-10248 Big Think mobile edition Wed, 30 Apr 2008 04:49:46 +0000 http://commadot.com/management-sins/#comment-10248 [...] like being a dictator, not giving credit and picking the wrong team. Commadot has a short and sweet three-entry list, starting with micromanagement. The Slow Leadership blog takes on Macho management and categorizes [...] [...] like being a dictator, not giving credit and picking the wrong team. Commadot has a short and sweet three-entry list, starting with micromanagement. The Slow Leadership blog takes on Macho management and categorizes [...]

]]> By: Ben Peters http://commadot.com/management-sins/comment-page-1/#comment-4144 Ben Peters Sun, 30 Dec 2007 22:55:09 +0000 http://commadot.com/management-sins/#comment-4144 My worst management sin - taking the idea of equality too seriously and treating everyone the same. I used to speak to everyone in the same way without considering the person - it was the attitude "this is me - take it or leave it." I would also try and create rules that would help me make decisions about managing people and processes at work. What I realized was that my rules and my ideas about treating people equally was pretty selfish. It was about making things easier for me rather than helping my team get things done better while trying to have fun doing it. We're all different. A manager should realize and respect those differences. Your employees will feel recognized, you will learn a lot about people, and everyone will be a lot happier. My worst management sin - taking the idea of equality too seriously and treating everyone the same. I used to speak to everyone in the same way without considering the person - it was the attitude “this is me - take it or leave it.” I would also try and create rules that would help me make decisions about managing people and processes at work.

What I realized was that my rules and my ideas about treating people equally was pretty selfish. It was about making things easier for me rather than helping my team get things done better while trying to have fun doing it.

We’re all different. A manager should realize and respect those differences. Your employees will feel recognized, you will learn a lot about people, and everyone will be a lot happier.

]]> By: Rob Wilkerson http://commadot.com/management-sins/comment-page-1/#comment-2868 Rob Wilkerson Sat, 01 Dec 2007 18:30:06 +0000 http://commadot.com/management-sins/#comment-2868 Rather than a management sin, I'll offer a couple of my (correlating) rules of management: 1. Understand that you don't know everything 2. Understand that your people don't *expect* you to know everything. 3. Know what you don't know 4. Be okay with what you don't know (read: don't pretend that you do know it and engage the argument from authority) 5. Trust your people to, collectively, know those things that you don't. 6. Understand that if none of you knows something that becomes required knowledge, you can ask one of them to learn it - or bring in someone that already knows it. In other words...relax. If you have good people and you take care of them, then they'll take care of you. If you don't have good people then you have bigger problems that you need to get sorted out before you spend too much time worrying about who knows what. The more I say it, the more it sounds so unbelievably obvious, and yet... Rather than a management sin, I’ll offer a couple of my (correlating) rules of management:

1. Understand that you don’t know everything
2. Understand that your people don’t *expect* you to know everything.
3. Know what you don’t know
4. Be okay with what you don’t know (read: don’t pretend that you do know it and engage the argument from authority)
5. Trust your people to, collectively, know those things that you don’t.
6. Understand that if none of you knows something that becomes required knowledge, you can ask one of them to learn it - or bring in someone that already knows it.

In other words…relax. If you have good people and you take care of them, then they’ll take care of you. If you don’t have good people then you have bigger problems that you need to get sorted out before you spend too much time worrying about who knows what.

The more I say it, the more it sounds so unbelievably obvious, and yet…

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