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Middle managers are the muscle and bone of every sizable organization, no matter how loose or “flattened” the hierarchy, but they are largely ignored despite their immense importance to our society and economy.
Companies today basically have two choices: Adapt or die.
The second idea is that the work of a business, of a government bureacracy, of most forms of human activity, is something pursued not by individuals but by teams.
The output of a manager is the output of the organizational units under his or her supervision or influence.
High managerial productivity, I argue, depends largely on choosing to perform tasks that possess high leverage.
A team will perform well only if peak performance is elicited from the individuals in it.
You need to plan the way a fire department plans. It cannot anticipate where the next fire will be, so it has to shape an energetic and efficient team that is capable of responding to the unanticipated as well as to any ordinary event.
Are you trying new ideas, new techniques, and new technologies, and I mean personally trying them, not just reading about them?
The key to survival is to learn to add more value—and
A manager’s output = the output of his organization + the output of the neighboring organizations under his influence.
If you only understand one thing about building products, you must understand that energy put in early in the process pays off tenfold and energy put in at the end of the program pays off negative tenfold.
The point is that whenever possible, you should choose in-process tests over those that destroy product.
A common rule we should always try to heed is to detect and fix any problem in a production process at the lowest-value stage possible.
Automation is certainly one way to improve the leverage of all types of work.
A manager’s output = The output of his organization + The output of the neighboring organizations under his influence
Reports are more a medium of self-discipline than a way to communicate information. Writing the report is important; reading it often is not.
As a rule of thumb, a manager whose work is largely supervisory should have six to eight subordinates; three or four are too few and ten are too many. This range comes from a guideline that a manager should allocate about a half day per week to each of his subordinates.
How does a manager motivate his subordinates? For most of us, the word implies doing something to another person. But I don’t think that can happen, because motivation has to come from within somebody. Accordingly, all a manager can do is create an environment in which motivated people can flourish.
The role of the manager here is also clear: it is that of the coach. First, an ideal coach takes no personal credit for the success of his team, and because of that his players trust him. Second, he is tough on his team. By being critical, he tries to get the best performance his team members can provide. Third, a good coach was likely a good player himself at one time. And having played the game well, he also understands it well.
In my experience, the best thing to do is to give your subordinate the written review sometime before the face-to-face discussion. He can then read the whole thing privately and digest it. He can react or overreact and then look at the “messages” again. By the time the two of you get together, he will be much more prepared, both emotionally and rationally.
When you ask a question, a garrulous or nervous person might go on and on with his answer long after you’ve lost interest. Most of us will sit and listen until the end out of courtesy. Instead, you should interrupt and stop him, because if you don’t, you are wasting your only asset—the interview time, in which you have to get as much information and insight as possible.
