The Bluffer's Guide to Management by John Winterson Richards

Author:John Winterson Richards
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bluffer's Guides

All this helps. The ‘my-door-is-always-open’ management style does not (not least because you may be interrupted when reading the latest copy of Men’s/Women’s Health or doing a sudoku puzzle). Balancing the need for a good manager to be accessible with the need to do some things without distraction dictates that you be accessible at certain regular times, and only at those times, except in emergencies.

Identifying unmanaged time in others is simple: watch for the overtime epidemic. Managers who like overtime are highly suspect. Those who take work home are positively dangerous.

The irony is that long hours are inefficient. All the evidence suggests that time is used more productively, and better decisions made, by people who are well rested, well nourished, well exercised and who maintain a healthy work-life balance.

If you find yourself in an organisation with a macho culture that prizes being the last to leave the office, you might mention the name of Henry Ford who, after extensive in-house research, famously doubled his workers’ pay and cut shifts from nine hours to eight in 1914. Business boomed as a result.

If your hints go unnoticed, you might consider looking for a new organisation.

INNOVATION

If you are pedalling like mad to stay in the same place, the added strain of innovating products, services or internal systems and practices may not come easily. We have nothing against innovation. Someone has to do it. From time to time you may wish to try it for yourself. However, there is the ‘better mousetrap’ problem. It is truly said that if you build the better mousetrap the world will beat a path to your door, but most of us are unlikely to have the formula for a better mousetrap. Tactically, it may be better to approve wholeheartedly of the concept of innovation, but shuffle off to someone else the task of implementation. Or else be equipped with reasons for doing it later.

Millionaire innovators are often great self-publicists; what is less well publicised is how many great innovators died penniless. The millionaires tend to be the people who did it second, or third or tenth or eleventh, but did it properly. Few people know that a man called Woodruff invented the railway sleeping car – undeniably first, but not very good. So the Woodruff car is better known as the Pullman, after George Pullman – who did it later and better.

OPTIMISING PROFITABILITY

In a private sector organisation, the ability to optimise profitability is the way to the top. This can be done by increasing sales, decreasing costs or a combination of both.

In general, it is easier to reduce costs than to increase sales. However, it should never be forgotten that cutting costs may impact on the overall efficiency and profitability of the organisation. It is amazing how many ‘efficiency reviews’ conclude that the sales department is extravagant, with predictable results…

If your career development strategy is based solely on building a reputation as a cost-cutter, you must always make sure that you get your promotion and move on quickly before you have to deal with all the consequences of your actions.

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