Rules Of Management

RULE 89 - Show that you’ll fight to the death for your team

“Jim: Who else is in this department?

Sir Humphrey: Well briefly, sir, I am the Permanent Undersecretary of State known as the Permanent Secretary, Wooley here is your Principle Private Secretary, and he is the Principle Private Secretary to the Permanent Secretary. Directly responsible to me are 10 Deputy Secretaries, 87 Undersecretaries and 219 Assistant Secretaries. Directly responsible to Principle Private Secretaries are Plain Private Secretaries, and the Prime Minister will be appointing two Parliamentary Undersecretaries and you will be appointing your own Parliamentary Private Secretary.

Jim: Can they all type?

Sir Humphrey: none of us can type, Minister. Mrs. McKay types, she’s secretary.”

Your team is your tool for getting the job done – whatever it happens to be. Without your team – and that can be one lone person or thousands of people – you are nothing. Without your team you are an empty page waiting to be written – or typed. You must support your team, praise it, fight for it – to the death if need be. The brilliant manager 0 we don’t to say who that is by now, do we? – generates loyalty and respect by being the team cheerleader – that’s you, that is.

You have to make people in your team see that you are not only their mentor, leader, guardian and protector but also their champion, their hero, their defender. If anyone tries to criticize them you will rise to their defense. If anyone tries to take advantage of them you will rush to protect them.

On the other hand you could always throw them to the wolves. See how far it gets you. But there are a lot of managers out there who seem to think that’s the clever option, the right choice. What do you think? I’ve worked for and with some, and believe me they lose staff so fast.

If your staff have seen you defend them once, they will know they can trust you to have their best interests at heart. That if something unfair is being imposed on them, you will stand up for them. This also means that if you accept something, they are likely to accept it too – which makes for a mother life all around.

“WITHOUT your team you are an empty page waiting to be written.”

posted by Right Ranger @ 9:34 PM