Rules Of Management

RULE 6 - Make your team better than you

“It is one of the strange ironies of this strange life [that] those who work the hardest, who subject themselves to the strictest discipline, who give up certain pleasurable in order to achieve a goal, are the happiest people.”
Brutus Hamilton, decathlon coach

A really good manager, yep that’s you again, knows that when their team takes wing and soars, they will soar. Getting your team to soar takes courage, grit, determination and an overwhelming passion. You have to make members of your team better than you, which mean trusting them, getting them the best resources, training them to take over from you, trusting them not to stab you in the back when it’s time to take over from you and being confident enough in your own abilities not to be jealous of them when they do take off. Tall order.

It takes quite some manager to carry this one out. You have to be pretty relaxed and secure in your own position. Encouraging your team to bring it on takes guts, quite frankly. Let’s take a look at your team. Who’ve you got there? Which ones will one day fill your shoes? What can you share with them to bring them on?

Shoe-fillers the ones you want to cultivate and grow. They are the bright ones, the keen ones, the eager beavers. I once had a young assistant who was so sharp he scared me. But when I did move on up, he filled my shoes. And he came with me over several moves, always one step behind. Now the crazy thing was he was better than me in lots of ways but he never chanced his arm and overtook me. It could have been out of respect but I doubt it – the industry I worked in was a little cut-throat to say the least. No, it was habit of having you as the manager and then it feels comfortable with that and doesn’t mutiny or overtake you. Teams only do that when they feel resentful or mistrusted. So bring ‘em on and train ‘em up and make ‘em better.

“ONCE YOU’VE BUILT A GOOD TEAM IT GETS IN THE HABIT OF HAVING YOU AS THE MANAGER.”

posted by Right Ranger @ 5:55 PM