Managers set the direction and style for the department. They determine the direction and how to travel the path toward meeting the department’s objectives. As a young manager I quickly discovered that when dealing with people issues, the shortest distance between the problem and the answer was not a straight line. We’re not dealing with human clones. We’re working with people who display all kinds of outrageous thinking and do all kinds of absurd things. We often wonder where they came from until we get to know them, and then we conclude that they are no more outrageous or absurd than we are. But managers have no alternative but to find a way to deal with these differences and idiosyncrasies. Getting to know something about the people that you work with poses a major challenge.
As a professional you have probably worked with managers who functioned at different points on the continuum, ranging from aggressive and proactive at one end to reactive and inactive at the other end. Other managers displayed different characteristics depending on the nature of the work at the time: aggressive and proactive at one time and reactive and inactive at another time. Being aggressive and proactive should not be construed to mean making impossible demands or being disrespectful or rude or insolent. Aggressive and proactive applies to the attitude toward accomplishing goals and objectives; it implies not just being on the leading edge but taking the lead. Goals and objectives are reached through discipline. Why can one orchestra conductor obtain superior performance from an orchestra while another conducting the same musicians only receives a mediocre response? The aggressive and proactive people will be looked upon as the high-performance benchmarks. Reactive and inactive managers are generally crisis driven; every day brings on a new set of crises because future events are not anticipated. These managers tend to play the role of the storekeeper rather than the store owner. So from your past experience you know managers are just as complex as their employees and come in just as many varieties. What kind of a manager do you want to be?
Successful teams demonstrate a sense of enthusiasm and a sense of excitement. This becomes evident the minute you walk into a department. Putting everybody in his or her own cubicle has made this more difficult, but can be demonstrated when you are in contact with working groups. The sense of interest, mutual cooperation, consideration for other’s requirements, and total involvement becomes evident very quickly. There’s a give and take on issues. Arguments and dissent are resolved through dialogue. Note that there’s a distinction between discussion and dialogue. Discussion usually involves talking around issues and voicing opinions without focusing on the real issues and reaching conclusions. Dialogue involves free access and sharing of information, challenging of assumptions, bringing conflicts to the surface and resolving them to the satisfaction of all concerned, giving due consideration to alternatives, and in the process building intellectual trust.
Members of a successful team develop a high level of trust. They are stimulated by their work and that stimulation rubs off on every member. There is no fear of judgment on raising issues because the focus is on performance. Did you ever work in what I refer to as a blah organization or department: an organization or department that exuded apathy and aloofness about meeting goals and objectives and the need for adding value through their work effort? What a waste of talent and other resources. Intellectual and operational discipline just doesn’t exist. There’s not much incentive to come to work under such conditions.