A Manager's Commitment

Reading Tom's post on Manager's Commitment really throws light to the world of Accidental Managers. Many of us don't know if they are prepared to be Managers the only fact that People will report in to ME and/or I will have a better say/word in the Team or organisation makes them move towards it. These Managers usually grow on the other side of breed that I call Semi Task Oriented Self Centered Managers.... who don't know what the Team is about but instead want to get the work that was assigned to them correctly at any cost.

Accidental Task oriented Managers are good when it comes to deliveries, but not necessarily are the stars of the Project teams. They do or get their jobs done but while this is happening they don't care about the Team, People or even maybe the Quality side of it. This usually makes it difficult for the Team to run in a long run and you see problems arising every other day.

When the management throws a new Reportee to you I think it should be made as a point that you think:

1. Am I eligible to get this person report in to me?
So what if I am senior most, so what I am the only person in the Team,so what if I can do it better... its not the question of if I can.. its a question of If I should. Moreover you don't need reportees if you want to help make the project success.... The root of the cause needs to be digged here that if You get someone in your Team would you be able to help the person accelerate in his/her growth?

2. Do I have time to spend with ?
Uff... the usual trouble. Managers find it difficult to create or steal time for people. This time is not the time you spend in meetings with them or talk personal stuff with them... but its a combination of time spans that you spend with such Team member on helping his/her career plans, performance, growth and so many other things.

3. Do I add value to the person?
This is another part that most of us are ignorant about... and it includes me too... lot of times we cannot add value to a persons day to day life, career or long term plans... just due to the fact that we are more engrossed in our daily work and routines. For instance the biggest related part of our lives Motivation goes unheld when the manager cannot handle value add to the Team member.

4. is the Learning going to be Vice Versa?
I have seen managers who don't know what the Team wants to learn from him nor they know if they are learning anything from the Team.... pity but if you are getting a new member added to your Team ensure that you would note points that you need to learn and the member needs to learn from You. Remember the moment there is no or one sided learning the bonding breaks.

Finally its not about reporting or managing... its about creating a missile in your store which can be as good as you can be. The test will be not in JUST GETTING WORK DONE but in Getting work done by learning several thousand things.....