To manage or not to manage

Yesterday was a weird day in the annals of new managers. For me, I have managed in four days to break the basic suggestions on staff management from my last professional development course. It's really kind of refreshing. In general the concept was to have a professional distance between yourself and your employee(s). That's already out the door. In the space of four days (and some interviews) I have gotten to know Brian pretty well and he has already joined Ed, the Kohler gang and I at the Sky Box (the sports bar where we Michiganders are frequently) and will likely end up there with us on Monday after we go visit a pack meeting.

That really isn't all that odd from my perspective and I am cool with it. The situation that was really interesting was for one of the other guys out with us last night. He is fresh out of college and manages 8 or 9 people who are all older than him at Kohler. It just so happens that one of his employees was in the band that was playing at the Sky Box. The band was good and a lot of fun. The unique part was when his employee's wife came up and chatted with him. There was almost an air of "my husband is really a good guy so don't can him" to the conversation. Getting one's butt kissed is an interesting experience in the first place, but having an employee's wife do it, that's weird. Suffice to say he (the manager) was pretty uncomfortable about it after all was said and done. I really don't blame him.

As I have begun returning to the manager mode, I re-remember what I realized while at Star that it is much easier to achieve success when the team has even a remote personal connection. That whole idea of management by dictatorship and title is nuts. In the military this makes sense, especially in a combat situation, but not in the corporate world. Admitted a new employee needs to be given direction and instruction, but they also need to be reassured that they are not going to be dumped with a load of stuff and no support. My first instinct after moving here was to expect to be told what to do and micromanaged--just like a new employee. That was far from what happened much to my eventual relief. In my view, I would rather spend that initial post-hire time working to develop a relationship and understanding with those I am working with either as an employee or manager. From a manager's perspective that will help me to better train the associate and help them to be successful. The key point is to create a successful, satisfied associate who is made part of the team. If you don't have that, how can you reasonably expect to achieve great things. ("The beatings--meetings--will continue until morale--productivity--increases.") In my particular position, the district will only move forward if Brian and I work in synergy towards that goal. A synergy that will only come with trust like Eric and I had while working together.

Oopps, got up on my soapbox again and started rambling, better stop. My challenge will be to practice what I preach. It should be a good challenge.

On a completely different note, the Pistons played great Saturday and the game was called much more reasonably than the previous ones. Hopefully this continues into Game 7. We shall see.