I am convinced managers make things that are simple, complicated.
All professions do it, plumbers, hairdressers, lawyers, road sweepers and doctors.
We all invent our own complexity - designed to confuse.
We build a wall round our own profession and then plaster that wall with posters that say “no entry unless you speak our language”
My passion is to dispel the myth of complexity in management and leadership.
After all, complexity is merely the sum of simple parts.
Management is not complicated at all ….we just love to make it complicated.
I love lists.
This is a list of 17 things I believe about management and leadership.
Yes 17 is a strange number. There is no mystery or significance in 17 - that is as far as I got!
Things I believe with a passion - not in priority order
1. Staff at the front line know all the answers all the time
2. The words “managing people” should be exorcised from the workplace. Nobody “manages” people any more - people manage themselves.
3. If a manager has any job at all in 2005 it is to move heaven and earth to make it easier for front line staff to do interesting new work
4. Get other people to do bits of your job - they usually do it better than you
5. Management is simple
6. Leadership is not simple - it is an art form
7. The basics are the new cutting edge
8. I’m not convinced leadership can be taught
9. Give all the budget to front line staff ….yes I did say all the budget
10. Complexity is merely the sum of simple parts
11. Forget MBA think MST (Masters in Story Telling)
12. We are all Chief Executives of our own future
13. “Powerlessness is a state of mind - not a state of reality” Tom Peters
14. I don’t know what “a big organisation” means in 2005
15. I would take a pay cut for some leaders ….I would not follow some leaders if they doubled my wages
16. Our greatest motivation is always from within
17. The older I get the more I like words like “difference” and “diversity” …and the less I like words like “right” and “wrong
Phew!!! - that feels better!!!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
18 (or my personal number one) The most annoying thing in the world is when someone assumes their judgement/decision is superior to yours because they are higher up the heirarchy. *fume*
Amen to that John - brilliant - I love it!!
Heirachies should be abolished anyway!! - how's that for number 19!!
Regards - thanks for your support.
Trevor
Post a Comment