Use a Compass

I don't believe there is one system that will unlock the secrets of management and leadership for all of us aspiring titans of industry (or small corner of the public sector in my case).  There is plenty (too much?) information for us to absorb on the art of management and leadership in the form of books and workshops, apps, podcasts etc, etc.  Combine this with all the other calls on our time:

• Emails
• "I just need to pick your brains for 5 minutes..." (losing you at least half an hour out of your day)
• Endless soul sucking meetings
• "We need to complete this spreadsheet, but it won't take long..." (yes it will)

With all these pressures it is easy to just stay in the fire fighting, reactive problem solving junkie mode.  It is comfortable, I don't have to think too hard, I can feed my urgency addiction through keeping busy and I feel that all these competing calls on my time mean I am needed.  Trouble is I am not actually achieving much, I am working through a to do list and keeping my in-box ticking over, but not really being productive.  I can find myself becoming very good a ticking things of a list and missing the more important stuff.

I need a compass to help me steer my way through all the information, emails, meetings and general busy stuff and help me to see if I am still on course with what I think are the important elements of my roles as manager and leader.

Each day I like to reflect on what I actually did as a manager and leader, rather than as a fire-fighting, problem solving junkie.  I do this by asking myself some questions about the areas I need to cover/stay on top of to function properly as a manager and leader.

Organised:

Do I know what I need to do and what the priorities are for my team?

Do I know where my boss is going to be and what his or her priorities are for the week?

Do I have a balance of urgent and important vs important, but not urgent tasks?

Disciplined:

Did I get on with the priorities or fall into busy work and the email trap?

Open:

Was I open to suggestions from my team and colleagues?

Did I ask questions first or jump in with a solution?

Honest:

Did I give constructive and honest responses?

Did I speak up or keep my mouth shut during difficult meetings and conversations?

Clear and Consistent:

Did I give a clear and consistent vision to my staff and colleagues?

Were my actions consistent with my words?

Was I positive in my interactions or a whingy timeserver?

Available:

Was I available for questions and support?

Did I balance that with the need to get work done?

Health:

Did I exercise today?

Did I meditate today?

Creativity:

Did I write today?

I know that I will not do all of these things perfectly each day, but knowing how I am doing, helps me to spot recurring negative traits and it is slowly pulling me away from wallowing in the fire-fighting, problem-solving junkie mode, and give more of my attention to supporting my staff and colleagues in achieving the organisation's objectives.

What compass do you use?

Management Guides and Systems - The Conspiracy

The bookshelves are full of books promising to make me a better manager, a more organised manager, a more effective manager, person and/or partner.  My inbox is often peppered with invites to seminars and workshops on how to lead, coach, inspire or other ways of influencing people to listen to me during business hours.

These two phenomenon are linked.  I think management guides and systems were cooked up by the publishing industry and the hoteliers to make money out of us keen to learn managers.  On the one hand the publishers get a constant stream of money from stressed out managers wanting a way to make the work problems disappear and when the books don't work the hotelier can squeeze us into windowless conference rooms and feed us tepid coffee and danish pastries whilst we get taught how to become a better, more effective, efficient, balanced, focussed principle driven manager/leader/coach.

Because if there was one way to become the best manager you possibly could be, there would be one book and one course and we would all get our companies to pay for it and bingo! we are all the best possible managers we could ever hope to be.

Except for life isn't like that.

It is obviously not that straightforward if you can fill shelves upon shelves in bookshops with "how to guides" and pearls of wisdom from business icons vying for space on said shelves.  And then there are the apps - countless dozens of them, all offering similar, but different takes on how to organise that pesky to do list or all those projects you have on the go.

So perhaps there isn't one system that can solve all your management ills in one go.  Perhaps all those books are wrong and you don't need to spend another afternoon in Basingstoke watching a Powerpoint presentation on the 5 (or is it 6?) key leadership skills every manager needs.  Perhaps you just need to find a way to adhere to some straightforward principles and check how many you adhere to each day or week?

Then you can borrow what you want from any of the systems on offer without having to subscribe to the Facebook group or write comments on blogs about management.