Although topics like Mindfulness and Meditation have recently threatened to overtake the presence that “Leadership v/s Management” has enjoyed in Leadership literature over the past 5 years, practitioners continue to have a lot to say on the subject. Instead of adding to the already over-crowded voice on how managers can progress to become Leaders, I would like to talk about what they should do after they’ve graduated to being Leaders.
Let me start with the anti-climactic give-away up-front so impatient and disinterested readers can find better things to do than spend time going through the rest of my article. I would like to suggest that the most important thing to do after graduating from a Manager to a Leader is to get back to being a solid Manager. Through the remainder of this blog, it will be my endeavor to get the good old, much-neglected Manager back in fashion. None of what I am going to say undermines the value of attributes and practices that have been attributed to being the difference between Management and Leadership (example – this simple one). But I am making a case for the need to _remain_ a sound Manager even after becoming a Leader. The specific reason to note this is the fact that several smart and intelligent people have taken to practicing Leadership in lieu of basics of Management and I have seen their effectiveness suddenly drop.
Through my own personal experiences, reflections as well as several deep conversations with successful people in various walks of life, I have tried to formulate some routines and practices that I think can be the foundation of one’s “solid management” practices. Of course, this is a theory that I have not been able to fully put into practice, but the ambition is to get as close as possible to do so.
My conviction in the theory that it is important to remain a sound Manager comes from my surprising finding that even accomplished Leaders think quite a bit about doing the basics right – as in the case of a successful $30B+ company CEO with whom I had the good fortune of a prolonged interaction about his Leadership philosophy. When I tried to find out what he constantly thinks about, I was anticipating responses like vision, hiring the right people, budgeting and such things. His response was refreshingly simple. He talked about how he has some simple practices that form the basis of his approach. He mentioned to me about how he always checks in with his direct reports regularly and never goes out-of-sync for more than a week – even if it means he needs to call them on the way to work or back. He also talked about how he spends plenty of time with his admin(s) (I am sure they must be some highly qualified MBAs!) to deliberately divide his time across different things – internal governance, external interactions and meeting with people. He specifically mentioned that he does that to make sure that he does not inadvertently gravitate towards things that he likes to do and instead, focus on doing the right set of things in the right proportion.
Another similar example is that of a friend of mine who is perhaps one of the fastest rising leaders in the Silicon Valley circles. During a casual chat that I happened to have with him where I sought to understand what his magic recipe is, he was very clear about how the source of his effectiveness comes from being able to unblock people as quickly as possible. As simple as it sounds, think of the amount of productivity and explosive positive energy that it unleashes in an organization where there are very few stall cycles. I am sure this is not a uni-dimensional skill/practice. Behind the scenes, he spends time doing things that establish a delivery track record, progressively broaden his spheres of influence so he can successfully unblock people even when they are blocked by seemingly immovable rocks.
Again – it is worth repeating that none of this makes light of the “big things” that most successful Leaders do. But the point that needs re-iteration is that it is very, very important to not give up on the first principles of Management. I am sure most effective Leaders have their own practices and routines. Here are some that I try to practice. What are yours?
- Check-in with my direct reports at least once a week – even if it is over a quick phone call or just swinging by their offices on my way to or from the coffee room
- Spend time on every Thursday afternoon to map out the following week and get a mental map of what I would define as success the following week
- Have at least 4 90-minute blocks on the calendar every week for impromptu meets, walking around the office floor, etc.
- Whenever possible, I meet people in their offices instead of mine – gives me thinking time between meetings and people are far less guarded in their own areas than others
- As hard as it is (and I must admit, I break this rule quite often), I try to make Friday my meeting black-out day. Serves as buffer for catching up on backlog, meet people that need quick time with me so I can unblock them
- Come to work really early on Fridays and attend to my reading backlog (I focus mostly on Business, Leadership, Technology, Spirituality and some Self Development topics) before people start to trickle in
- If I have important meetings where I am not just participating, but trying to lead or drive an outcome or provide a direction, I make very sure to block prep time for those meetings. In general, if there’s a meeting that I am driving, I always set aside time to prepare for it
- For every 1-hour interview, I set aside an hour to prepare for it so I can make it count for myself as well as the interviewee
- Set aside 4 hours per direct report per quarter just for performance feedback, goal setting and career planning discussions
- Respond to every email directed to me – even if it means I just respond with a “let’s take this up in person”
- Do my best to show up – may be an employee celebrating the birth of a little one in her family or even an employee’s going away lunch
- Look back at my calendar every month and see if I would like to re-balance the way I spend my time across different activities. More broadly, I try to use my calendar to align it with my long and short term goals rather than let it grow on me and consume me
What are some of your practices?
An Amateur's Blog - Sachin Desai 