Well, where I work it means always saying "if you need anything, just ask." And then completely ignoring any requests.
What does it mean to be a leader?
- Thread starter Rusty Blade
- Start date
Post of the week! You made me glad I'm retired, even if I hate it most days.
Very interesting thread, some comments I don't agree with but most I do. A few of my own thoughts....
Leaders:
-Stay above the fray.
-Are honest, all the time and without exception. This can be difficult especially when there are staffing issues afoot. I've always been clear with my team that if cuts were coming that I'd share with them when I could but that there will be times where I simply have to hold back information. Doesn't mean I lied to them, rather they knew I would communicate details when I could.
-Understand that respect between a leader and subordinate is reciprocally earned but compliance is expected.
-Are prepared to be wrong and own the consequences as wholly as you would when you're right. And if something happens down chain from you and even if you weren't directly responsible you still have to own it.
-Are able to articulate you vision, or the vision you've been given by superiors, clearly and with conviction. Somewhat contradictory but situationally be able to deliver that vision with the appropriate obfuscation (e.g. to some customers, external parties like media or competitors, etc.),
-Expect more out of yourself then you expect out of your subordinates,
-Hire people smarter than you are.
-Either have a successor to your position either picked out or work on developing that person.
-Are friendly but not friends with your subordinates (and your superiors).
-Understand that you'll be asked to do things by your superiors that may make no sense to you whatsoever (e.g. TPS reports) but do them, chances are your boss is only following a silly request from above.
-Tactfully, or not at times, get brown-nosers to stop ASAP, its toxic.
-Never under estimate the abject pinheadery of what some staff are capable of* and then respond appropriately.
*little story....
In a previous role I managed an office of around 20 technical staff (engineers, geologists, etc.) that ranged from close to retirement to fresh out of school. The parent company was purchased by another and among all the other integration activities it meant we were closing our office and moving to theirs (a bonus since we ere in a pretty mangy space), As part of that transition it meant that some of what was in the old office space was available to the employees to take home (the new owners weren't interest in 20 year old silk plants,etc.). I was abundantly clear as to what was/wasn't available and that anything that was to be removed was to happen after hours on specific days as to not impact the movement of retained assets. One of the younger employees, who had just purchased their first home, expressed interest in the lunchroom dishwasher. I said fine but only after everything else was gone and we could get the building manager to arrange for its electrical and plumbing to be disconnected. They pouted but said fine. One evening a few weeks later I'm in the office just checking out a few things and doing a walk through to see how the real move is going and poke my head into the lunch room and what don't I see? A dishwasher. Yup, zippy decided to preempt things and just remove it themselves. First level of discontentment came because they weren't able to adhere to what they agreed to, second and much heightened level of discontentment, no rage, came when I saw how they removed it. Plumbing wasn't an issue just sloppy, proper thing to do would be put cap on the supply and drain lines but they were left as is. Nonetheless could still have been a flooding risk for the floors below. More problematic was the electrical. They cut the feed line (just a piece of romex) flush at the wall junction box....while it was still live. For a moment set aside the obvious safety issues now I've got to explain to the building manger I'm calling him at 10:00pm to let him know there's an exposed live connection in one of his suites and then explain to my boss why I'm going to be submitting a ~$500 invoice from said building manger to get an electrician out at midnight to cap it. But back to the safety, after I had calmed down and was fairly certain no one was at risk that evening I thought about how to address this with my problem child. At the core of it was they didn't follow what was a clear instruction. While obviously not a rank centric organization like an army I do expect that if someone is given a undisputable instruction that they follow it. Second was the potential liability that this brought on the company. To deal with the former the following morning I had the employee come to my office and asked if they removed the dishwasher. Their first response was to deny it but quickly changed their story to the truth and admitted they took it. I was clear that there would be repercussions and that for the time being they were suspended. What made it almost comical is their attempt to defend their actions by saying it wasn't dangerous because they "cut the wire very fast". Honestly, how do you respond to that?
Leaders:
-Stay above the fray.
-Are honest, all the time and without exception. This can be difficult especially when there are staffing issues afoot. I've always been clear with my team that if cuts were coming that I'd share with them when I could but that there will be times where I simply have to hold back information. Doesn't mean I lied to them, rather they knew I would communicate details when I could.
-Understand that respect between a leader and subordinate is reciprocally earned but compliance is expected.
-Are prepared to be wrong and own the consequences as wholly as you would when you're right. And if something happens down chain from you and even if you weren't directly responsible you still have to own it.
-Are able to articulate you vision, or the vision you've been given by superiors, clearly and with conviction. Somewhat contradictory but situationally be able to deliver that vision with the appropriate obfuscation (e.g. to some customers, external parties like media or competitors, etc.),
-Expect more out of yourself then you expect out of your subordinates,
-Hire people smarter than you are.
-Either have a successor to your position either picked out or work on developing that person.
-Are friendly but not friends with your subordinates (and your superiors).
-Understand that you'll be asked to do things by your superiors that may make no sense to you whatsoever (e.g. TPS reports) but do them, chances are your boss is only following a silly request from above.
-Tactfully, or not at times, get brown-nosers to stop ASAP, its toxic.
-Never under estimate the abject pinheadery of what some staff are capable of* and then respond appropriately.
*little story....
In a previous role I managed an office of around 20 technical staff (engineers, geologists, etc.) that ranged from close to retirement to fresh out of school. The parent company was purchased by another and among all the other integration activities it meant we were closing our office and moving to theirs (a bonus since we ere in a pretty mangy space), As part of that transition it meant that some of what was in the old office space was available to the employees to take home (the new owners weren't interest in 20 year old silk plants,etc.). I was abundantly clear as to what was/wasn't available and that anything that was to be removed was to happen after hours on specific days as to not impact the movement of retained assets. One of the younger employees, who had just purchased their first home, expressed interest in the lunchroom dishwasher. I said fine but only after everything else was gone and we could get the building manager to arrange for its electrical and plumbing to be disconnected. They pouted but said fine. One evening a few weeks later I'm in the office just checking out a few things and doing a walk through to see how the real move is going and poke my head into the lunch room and what don't I see? A dishwasher. Yup, zippy decided to preempt things and just remove it themselves. First level of discontentment came because they weren't able to adhere to what they agreed to, second and much heightened level of discontentment, no rage, came when I saw how they removed it. Plumbing wasn't an issue just sloppy, proper thing to do would be put cap on the supply and drain lines but they were left as is. Nonetheless could still have been a flooding risk for the floors below. More problematic was the electrical. They cut the feed line (just a piece of romex) flush at the wall junction box....while it was still live. For a moment set aside the obvious safety issues now I've got to explain to the building manger I'm calling him at 10:00pm to let him know there's an exposed live connection in one of his suites and then explain to my boss why I'm going to be submitting a ~$500 invoice from said building manger to get an electrician out at midnight to cap it. But back to the safety, after I had calmed down and was fairly certain no one was at risk that evening I thought about how to address this with my problem child. At the core of it was they didn't follow what was a clear instruction. While obviously not a rank centric organization like an army I do expect that if someone is given a undisputable instruction that they follow it. Second was the potential liability that this brought on the company. To deal with the former the following morning I had the employee come to my office and asked if they removed the dishwasher. Their first response was to deny it but quickly changed their story to the truth and admitted they took it. I was clear that there would be repercussions and that for the time being they were suspended. What made it almost comical is their attempt to defend their actions by saying it wasn't dangerous because they "cut the wire very fast". Honestly, how do you respond to that?
There are NO words.
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