A Manager’s Mirror, Episode VII

Build, integrate, handover and take new challenge!

by Georgina Popescu

https://www.heise.de/foto/galerie/benutzer/Flaechenkind-726128/fotos/

I do not know if this is a general treat of my generation (I am from the vintage of ‘70s), but I always liked to seek new things to learn and explore. Even before switching to managerial positions, enlarging my understanding of the roles and expectations of various activity areas within the organisation was a crucial part of doing my job. I believe this had to do both with the need to integrate my work in ‘the big picture’ and the desire to avoid redundancies (or gaps!) in order to optimize results.

As a first time manager, when my then-boss entrusted me with the creation of a new department within a large bank, I set out an ambitious objective. My aim was to organize the process while motivating and empowering the team members in such a manner that, within three months from our kick-off meeting, they would be in the position to deliver almost anything on their own, as if I were not there. Of course I would stay on for a longer period of time, at least until we achieve stabilization of the new area we were supposed to build. However I wanted them to work as autonomously as possible, as this would allow me to focus on those managerial undertakings that had to do with political power balance within the organization, integration of the new process, establishing awareness and finally recognition of our team’s competence and results. And along the way, my other favorite priorities – travelling to understand better the local specifics, training and personal development of staff, within the team but also beyond...

The first adventure was cut short a little too soon in my perception, as I was offered an almost ‘mandatory’ promotion… don’t misunderstand me, it was not THAT kind of ‘mandatory’… purely once in a lifetime opportunity, which could not be passed. The decision to accept was also kind of a team decision and the carrot was a unique mix between an exceptional boss and the invitation to build another new area, on a higher level. Still, as the results seemed really great at that point, I decided to approach with similar simplicity the next journey. And so on…

In my opinion, the first phase of a managerial itinerary is building – process and team. No matter if this means to start from scratch or take over fully functional existing ones, it is a step no captain can skip, as sailors know very well… no matter how calm the weather looks when you start, you need to know that you can depend both on the ship and on every member of your crew when times get tough – and they always do!

I consider this phase as ‘delivered’ as soon as the team is able to operate efficiently on ‘business as usual’ mode, independently of my involvement. It can take from a couple of months to almost a year, depending on size and complexity, and it needs continuous fine-tuning and maintenance afterwards. For this purpose I usually recommend to focus on your own behavior: be fair and square with everyone, and make sure you are the first one to respect the new rules (which should be established in a transparent, credible and functional way!). Do not encourage people to jump ranks all day long, however keep your door open and listen patiently to all those who have good reason to address you with their concerns. Make sure your team can count on your support whenever duly needed. Finally, do not hesitate to recognize and timely address bad influence hubs, no matter if they threaten to contaminate the people or the processes. 

The second phase, or better said focus area, is the integration of the construction into the bigger picture. This may overlap sometimes with the first, especially if the building phase takes a long time. As a manager, you need to ensure process feasibility for all the stakeholders involved, as well as position your team properly – power balance, remuneration, recognition of expertise, dependability of results. As one of my former bosses used to say, the first few months are crucial from this perspective – you should aim to achieve a quick gain (success story with notable impact) and a constructive lesson, and make sure they both spread through the organisation, in order to build trust and motivate the other stakeholders in future co-operation. The recognition should then consolidate over time, with due care towards both exceptional results and proper communication.

The last phase, just before steering the wheel to a new challenge, is the successful handover to the next manager. Ideally, this should happen smoothly if the building and integration phases includes a succession planning that gains acceptance from the main counterparts – the team and the higher managerial ranks. If this is not the case, then you will probably need to make the best of what you have, meaning you should not leave (too many) untied ends and loose cannons… if you care about reputation in the long run!

If you successfully went through all those three phases, you should now be ready to… start again!

And because this is the last episode of the Manager’s Mirror series, I will conclude it the same as the first episode – by extending what I shared today to all professionals out there, managers or ‘not yet’… While I believe specific expertise in the area you are about to embark upon is paramount in order to achieve best results within reasonable time, I also incline to recommend expanding your knowledge with every new challenge approached in your career. Step one would then be to build (your new expertise and support network), step two to integrate (into what you already know, into the team, into the future…), then handover to the next ‘former you’ and move on to the ‘future you’ – on a different (hopefully higher) level!

One positive aspect of this approach is that once you prove yourself reliable, result-oriented and loyal to a complex organization that you are compatible with, you can keep on learning and progressing every few years, and this will most probably pay off in the long run also from a managerial perspective.

And because I know that younger vintages are tempted to make changes rather often, I will close by sharing another advise from a former boss: you should learn new things every 2 years while in your 20s, every 3 years while in your 30s and stabilize within your comfort zone after 40s… as you should know by then what fits you best!

A Manager’s Mirror, Episode VI

Trust people, build confidence, cast away fear 
by Georgina Popescu

Source: https://elysianwaters.com/tag/robert-brault/

Before going into the details of this episode, I need to get back to the idea of the entire series and, more important, to its title – A Manager’s Mirror.

It does not only reflect the need for self-assessment (see the pilot episode) or the permanent exploration of the environment around (as mentioned in Episode I - just as in a thrilling but safe driving experience, you should put to good use all the mirrors in the car, while keeping eyes both on the road ahead and on the picturesque surroundings!).

The most important mirrors on a successful manager’s path are actually… his (her) people! They are all mirroring the attitude and responding to the feed-back they receive with the same coin, only usually amplified in terms of effect. Trust returns loyalty, confidence returns enthusiasm, while fear returns discontent. It has to do with the basic law of cause and effect, concentrated in an old Romanian proverb saying: ‘how you lay your bed determines how you sleep’.

Experience has revealed to me many times in different organizations that proper delegation and empowerment proves and at the same time strengthens reciprocal trust, builds mutual confidence and casts away everybody’s fears (or at least silences them for as long as necessary to get the job done!).

The key word here is ‘proper’ and it means that it does not work if the three conditions above are not met.

Before delegating an important task, you have to believe in the integrity of the person, in their professional ability to carry it through and in their maturity not to be overwhelmed by negative feelings and get lost along the way. You can start with smaller and less important things and support your colleague on the path of self-development, so that he (she) grows both professionally and personally until ready to take on more challenging jobs.

You also need to be fair and transparent in your feed-back, not hide behind your position to avoid conflict or put others down when they fail. Management is a two-way street and the best means to enlarge it is by sharing and learning from each other.

The first ingredient is the most essential – mutual trust. It is hard to build and easy to loose, and once it is lost becomes really difficult to get back (even though not always impossible!). The other two – confidence and fearlessness - are usually rooted in this one. Therefore, if you want to have a winning team, you need to relate with each of its member on that level or be honest and carefully separate your ways, as fair and constructively as possible, but still as early in the process as necessary not to hurt the rest of the team.

I believe you all wonder by now – is there a simple ‘ABC success key’ to unlock and align the three properly on your managerial path?

The good news is that once you see them in your own mirror, it is not so hard to contaminate everyone around. The bad news is that I do not believe in universal recipes for that. The only thing I can do is share mine today, as I see it when I look back on the past 10 years or so…

‘My way’ basically consists in a mix of honest smile, enthusiastic story-telling and transparency over ‘the bigger picture’ for every task I give. I approach delegation based on confidence, empowerment and control in variable dosage, depending on the compatibility between the person and the task. I strive to ensure individual (or team) recognition for the result, and share failure in a manner aimed not to judge, but to learn from what went wrong. I can be understanding and demanding at the same time, but I do commit to personal involvement whenever needed (either as a fall-back option or as an escalation support). Sometimes I need to ask for temporary ‘sacrifices’ but try not to forget compensating for that afterwards.

Finally, I admit that I had my fair shares of failures, but somehow managed not to allow them to discourage me to start over again – and this is exactly the motivation behind today’s Manager’s Mirror.

So… you are now challenged! Look in your mirror once again, find your own way and trust it - today and always!

A Manager’s Mirror, Episode V

Bridge the gap between formal and informal

by Georgina Popescu

In most organisations the formal hierarchies and processes co-exist with an almost parallel universe, conventionally called informal structure.

The most adaptable recognize and strive to understand this reality and its effects on business. Then periodically bridge the gap – either by incorporating clever informal ways of doing things into the formal processes or by adjusting the formal controls in a way to prevent further spread of unhealthy informal practice.

In terms of people, the ‘soft’ skills that enable communication and managerial effectiveness are unevenly distributed among the formal and informal hierarchies.

In my view, a successful manager has a third eye that enables him/her to see through respective universe and thus steer in the right direction for the benefit of the working environment.

I see the measure of success as being able to bring together the best from both sides, by designing a formal frame that fits both theory (technical, legal, moral, regulatory compliance and industry standards) and practice (experience and wisdom from the informal world). At the same time, it means ensuring motivation and empowerment to those informal leaders which can become constructive enablers, while weeding out the unjustified resistance fighters that may compromise beneficial strategic change.

Each organization and manager has to find their own way in bridging this gap, with only one universal solution: common sense!

A Manager’s Mirror, Episode IV

Break for lunch and enjoy… good company!

by Georgina Popescu

It might come as a surprise to most hard-workaholics, but the body periodically needs fuel, the mind continuous challenge and the soul quality companionship. And a good manager knows how important it is to maintain all those in perfect balance.

I have tried almost every alternative to a decent meal in my professional life (even the ‘skip-it-altogether’ version once or twice!). And I have understood while growing mature that organising lunch breaks is essential for the success of any business week.

In my opinion, everyone should allocate proper time for it every day and, more than that, use that time wisely, depending on the area that needs most balancing. As the location choices are rather limited in real life, this translates mostly into alternating the company - colleagues (boss, peers, and team members), business partners, friends or family members. I always strive to keep one day per week free, in order to be able to allocate on short-notice emergencies, or purely to have a quiet lunch with myself from time to time.

Just as the intake of food is all about quality and not quantity, so should be the choice for company during lunch. One should not approach difficult matters, serve notices, give negative feed-back or settle scores over lunch breaks, unless the target is mass indigestion. Such issues are better framed in neutral but professional set-ups. When you invite people to eat together the occasion should be used as a frame for good news, or as a bridge to alignment and mutual understanding. A decent business lunch may facilitate reaching gentleman’s agreements in a positive and constructive way, and build the foundation for future partnership.

In any case, lunch break should allow the body to refuel, the mind to take an active break and the soul to enjoy good company – to get all of you back in sync, ready to approach the second half of the day with the same amount of energy as in the morning (or even better!).

While I perceive the breakfast as an intimate necessity and the dinner as a private reward, whenever I think of the lunch, I see it as the wizard of professional and personal balance. Without forgetting the old saying ‘there is no free lunch’, therefore balancing everything, including the involved bill!

A Manager’s Mirror, Episode III

Align expectations, then update; or expect failure!
by Georgina Popescu

This Episode could be also called ‘Managing - up and down and all around...’

I am talking about one of the basic economic principles, the law of supply and demand, and the effect it has on price, applied to the management of tasks, strategic goals, priorities and (limited!) resources.

The more ‘scarce’ your product is, the better the price you can tag to it (and I am not talking only money, but also time!); the more reliable you prove to be as a supplier in terms of quality, the more orders you will get. It is not really much philosophy, you have to see your team’s work as a high class product and build a brand around it.

Considering this, the message today is: make sure you can deliver what you commit to. Otherwise you will not survive for too long in the market place. Cutting a few corners to deliver ‘something’ just to meet a deadline may get you a pat on the shoulder today, but may prove costly in terms of reputation tomorrow.

The competent and credible manager is actually a contemporary wizard, who creates the right balance between whatever his team supplies and the demand for that ‘thing’ all around - upwards, downwards and lateral, internal and external, formal and informal. He (or she) has the ability to adjust the product / service to the ‘market’, comprehend what is expected from them compared to their delivery capabilities and react in a proper manner - by accepting, refusing or negotiating the conditions of respective ‘order’. And just like in any marketplace, the community prospers when the demand and supply naturally influence each other and move along in a common direction for mutual satisfaction.

That is all I had to say this week. Still, as this is an important week for Christianity all around the world, I will end the post with a managerial approach to the famous ‘Serenity Prayer’:

May my team grant me the serenity to say 'Yes'
to those tasks we can duly deliver in time and within quality parameters expected from us,

May my boss encourage us to say 'No'‎
to those things we cannot deliver or should not waste our time and capacity on (as they are so useless!),

May our (good) reputation grant us the credibility to say 'Yes‎, under condition that...'

to all those things that need a different angle to turn from 'good' to 'great', with a decent marginal ‘effort to result’ rate,

And

May we all have the wisdom to know the difference and timely adjust to changing times whenever needed.

A Manager’s Mirror, Episode II

Understand yesterday, deliver today, plan for tomorrow!

by Georgina Popescu

Simple and self-explanatory, no further details needed.

Let's still expand this a bit, just to make a point: one should neither overdo nor ignore any of those three equally important time dimensions of the managerial experience. And by overdoing it I purely mean outlining one as being the most important, to the detriment of the others.

Past is all about understanding. And not for the sake of curiosity or revenge, but for the sake of forward-looking improvement and growth.

Digging too deep backwards and playing blame-games more than reasonably necessary to prove a point, find a solution and prevent future mistakes will gradually build tension, eliminate trust and erode motivation within a team. Questions need to be asked and lessons learned from the perspective of their relevance to the present and usefulness to the improvement of the company. Long-term vision is something that every manager somehow has - the question is if it's focusing on inner fears or glazing into new beginnings.

Sometimes the past should be left behind, in order to overcome present difficulties and move boldly into a better future. Even in such cases, the need to understand what went wrong is important, at least to avoid tailoring the future in the same way...

On the other hand, past can be an excellent teacher and the source of present wealth – brand awareness, functional process, best practice, team spirit, and so on. Even in such cases, it should not be worshiped without questioning or maintained without permanently looking around and ahead, as the world changes and even great empires eventually fall.

And so, here comes the present – the only one which is actually happening to us, every day!

Present is all about delivery – properly as expected when due, reasonably exceeding whenever possible, but always fair and thus consolidating the past and preparing for the future.

A manager should not lead like there's no tomorrow, as this would be wrong almost all the time - except the day before last. The present should be approached wisely, making the best of resources and opportunities, preparing for the next probable steps in accordance with available information and (yes…) past experience. Just like when planning to go on a holiday to a distant island - check weather conditions, flight schedules and time zone, currency and insurance, local culture and must-see places, best food locations, safety concerns, and so on. Decide, book, pack accordingly and then prepare… to be unprepared.

Really now… if you want a practical hint from my experience, the best way to organise is to close your eyes and bring the future into the present moment – imagine you are already there and picture what you need to have in order to deliver what is expected of you. And make your list(s). Timely preparation gives you comfort, as long as the most important feature of the plan is flexibility! Allow reasonable room for unforeseen events and turns of luck (no matter if we talk about good or nasty luck – you should distribute attention to both!). And be ready to fill holes with creativity, even in case everything goes as planned.

Almost every successful manager I know recognises planning as being the key to balance their assumed past with a fulfilling present and promising future. Everything flows and is correlated – understand cause and deal with the effect (until you learn to influence both), take action (or inaction or reaction) and assume the consequence.

The past and the future are always knitted into, respectively out of the present, where balance (or imbalance!) gets created. And only those well prepared are comfortable enough to deal with the unexpected.

A Manager’s Mirror, Episode I

Your success pillars: hardware, software, content, awareness.
by Georgina Popescu

If you are an experienced headline-news-reader, you may believe this is about IT.

It is not.

It is about focus for efficient management.

IT-like terminology just makes it short and simple.

Any computer-operated system needs both ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ to operate properly, and the quality of those makes a big difference in the user’s decision to purchase. While being mandatory for any state-of-the-art machinery, it is however no longer sufficient. In order to differentiate, the producer needs to deliver also quality content – added-value applications with friendly interface, which create ‘best user experience’. Finally, it does not matter if you have the best hardware, software and content if you keep this to yourself… you need to make sure that everyone is aware of that in order to purchase, enjoy and then further disperse the positive feed-back.

Apply now the same rationale to a human being – we are all born with unique hardware and software, develop content and build awareness all around us until the last day of our life. Most of us perpetuate the content and awareness for a while, even past the moment when our hardware and software has stopped functioning…

Can we apply the same to a profession? I believe so. The basis for this lies in the education and continuous learning.

First, there is a set of so-called ‘hard skills’ to be acquired as a pre-requisite by any individual who wishes to adhere to the profession. Then each of those individuals has a blend of unique so-called ‘soft skills’ that differentiate him/her from the other members in the way he/she does things in the area of human interaction. The set of skills needed vary significantly with the profession - for example the hard skills of an actor may represent soft skills for a doctor or mathematician. The backbone (or basic social survival kit) which transcends most of the professions is instilled to most of us from childhood to adolescence, while the adult life is all about further developing our own unique set of skills, according to the content we wish to contribute and the awareness we intend to raise in our environment.

Enlarging now from individual to collective self, I finally get to the point which is that wonderful complex system that a manager has to lead towards greatness nowadays, both in terms of content and awareness (no matter how you may specifically call them - profit, deliverables, bottom line, quantitative and qualitative results, regulatory constraints, team spirit, customer centric, social responsibility etc.).

Any manager, no matter how big a ship he/she needs to steer, has a two-fold focus – human resources and everything else. You cannot cross the street without the first one. The rest is just mandatory hard skills set, which should be a pre-requisite for his/her appointment.

In terms of mastering your team’s performance, it is all about integrating the limited resources at your disposal (hard and soft skills), by generating together credible proper content and facilitating awareness – both inside the team and towards external parties, so that you can add value to all the stakeholders involved. And the best way to do this is in a continuous flow motion, just like going around the world in a car. Set your itinerary, get your resources and passengers on board, check that all your mirrors are adjusted to maximise vision from all possible angles and… start moving! Drive courageously but keep your passengers safe (and make sure they feel that way!), adapt to your surrounding and maintain schedule. And… don’t forget to refuel and enjoy!

The longer the trip, the more you will need to make adjustments – to the car, itinerary or passengers. And when this happens, my advice is to concentrate on the future usefulness of needed changes. If you want to stay one step ahead of (real!) competitors you should get comfortable with an anticyclical approach. Romanians have a saying for this – responsible people build sleigh in the summer and carriage during winter.

In times of profits flowing and markets growing you may want to invest in expensive ‘hard’ components and content design while maintaining all the rest. In times of difficult survival and shrinking demand you should direct your scarce resources to ‘soft’ skills and awareness (including loyalty of best people!) while maintaining all the rest. Never forget that driving under difficult conditions requires the best set of skills and the most feasible (not fast!) car for survival. You should use hardship periods to unload unnecessary burden, but make sure you don’t lose top performance drivers in the process.

If you distribute your management priorities around those four pillars in an anticyclical and forward-looking manner, you will notice that your team members will start self-investing in their own upgrade to generate better content, to the benefit of the entire system.

Finally, even if you are not yet a team manager, you may find that the same logic can be applied to everything important in life, both in terms of personal and professional accomplishment. It helps turning dreams into plans and executing them without losing focus.

I know this is no easy challenge, because anticyclical approach actually requires abilities to understand the past and see the present as it is, with the purpose of anticipating the future. Which is actually the topic of the next episode…