Learn from All Your Managers (Good and Bad)

With the New Year coming, I know a lot of people look at potential changes in their professional career. I will be posting some items I have learned over the years that I hope will help folks with any changes they are considering. I thought this was a good place to start for first Management insight post.

During my 20+ years in Industry, I have come across a lot of different Managers. Some I consider to be fantastic and others that definitely are not. I know others have written about this subject but I have to get my thoughts out. The biggest thing to remember is to learn from both types. Learning from a bad Manager can help you become a good Manager.

My advice is to analyze all the Managers you have had and choose which category the fall in. Once you have them categorized, determine why you placed them in that category. You might be a little surprised what you learn. I was. There were a few things that I came across during my analysis that made me think. I will discuss 1 observation in this post.

I had to learn the difference between a Manager that allowed to me try new things to grow as a professional and one that just didn’t care what I did. I have had Managers that fell into both these categories. I watched a TED talk from Dan Ariely that helped me understand my feelings on the subject. I recommend anyone considering this activity to watch his talk. It is his talk “What makes us feel good about our work?”. I found it very interesting.

A Manager that allows you to grow is one that assigns tasks to you and lets you try to achieve the goal. They don’t volunteer how you achieve (or just tell you how to complete) the goal. They allow you to use your skills and talents. They check in on you in an encouraging way; see if you need support. If things get off track, they help you get it back. The second type of Manager assigns you tasks that are not really important. When you submit the completed item, it is accepted without question and there are no progress checks during completion.

I actually had a Manager show up late for my performance review. He showed up 15 minutes late and arrived without any supporting data (projects I had completed or current projects). He also showed up without my job description or my resume. He completed the form as we sat there and had to cut it short because he had another review to do. We worked at the same address and I pretty much had to book a conversation with him. This is a Manager that does not value an employee's contribution. I realized very quickly that I did not want to manage in this manner.

I also had a Manager that was the complete opposite to the above example. We were located thousands of kilometres apart and he made a real effort. We spoke on the phone a couple times a week and he definitely allowed me to grow as a professional. When I would call for advice he would always ask what I thought before he answered. He wanted to make sure I thought through the problem before calling him. He always gave his opinion, but after he saw I put effort into the analysis.

I will be writing more posts like this in the future. I have learned a lot from folks like this (and made a few mistakes) over the years and it is time I share these experiences. I realize that others will have a different perspective and that is perfectly fine. My hope is that I can help people through my experiences. People spend more time at work (or performing work) than anything else. I want people to enjoy their work. More to come...