Wharton MBA for Executives

I started reading for my MGMT 621 class over the weekend. It’s an interesting class because it’s about managing people. Like most students in the MBA for Executives program, I have many years of experience managing people. I started managing people way back in 1997 so it’s been 11 years already! This class is interesting because it is giving me a formal knowledge of management as well as exposing me to many different management styles.

The most important (and probably most obvious) insight that I have from my experiences is that every manager has his/her own management style. I have been told by some that I am an extremely effective manager and I have also been told at times that I am not effective at all. Without saying that my management style is the best or most effective or anything like that, the following list describes my own personal management style:

1) Treat your employees as adults. In the workplace, we’re all adults here so treat everyone as a rational, mature, adult. As adults, they should be treated with a baseline of respect and dignity. I disagree with belittling or bossing around employees. I actually think this is the biggest difference between High School vs. College. Once you are in college, you are treated like an adult by your peers and professors. In High School, you are still treated like a child (teachers say things like “come here right now young man!”).

2) Lead by example. Do not ask an employee to do something that you would not be willing to do. This is especially true when it comes to ethical issues.

3) Don’t be afraid to let someone go. The manager has responsibilities to the company first, not the employees. If an employee is not performing, do not be afraid to make a change in the best interest of the company. I have had to let many people go in my career and it is still one of the most difficult things for me to do.  The only thing worse than this, is letting an incompetent employee stick around.  It’s simply not fair to the employees who do perform if they have to constantly make up for another employee’s slack.

4) Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. In order to succeed, you need to first try to succeed. In golf, it’s much better to miss that putt by going past the hole by 3 feet than not reaching the hole by 3 feet. Mistakes will happen so try to minimize them but don’t be afraid to make a mistake.  I have heard many college admissions coordinator say “I can’t tell you if you’re get in if you apply, but I can tell you that you won’t get in if you don’t apply.”

5) Plan. You know the old saying “if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” Plan for every meeting, email, phone call, etc.  The planning may seem like a waste of time sometimes, but I can always tell between a manager who walks into a meeting “cold” versus one who actually spent some time preparing for the meeting.

6) Get to know the employees. Everyone employee has strengths and weaknesses. Try to build upon their strengths, and improve their weaknesses. At the end of the day, get to know your employees so that you know their capabilities and capacities. I had a developer who flat out refused to do certain tasks but was brilliant in other tasks. I eventually let him go because that attitude had no place in my organization but for awhile, I did utilize his strengths.

7) Promote from within.  If at all possible, promote from within.  Your existing employees know your product the best and you know their strengths and weaknesses.  It also takes a lot of time and trial and error (sometimes) to find the right employee from the outside.  Promoting from within also shows that there is real upward mobility and chances to move up in the organization.

8) Be consistent.  It’s very easy to have favorite employees but try to be consistent with each employee.  Employees need to be measured objectively.

Anyway, those are the top 8 that I can think of right now.  Some of the interesting reading I have done so far include the various things that employees need for motivation (decent pay, sense of purpose, building long term skillsets, change for upward mobility, etc.) and some interesting cases.  I won’t go into these in too much detail here since that will have to wait for class.  I do find one of my reading very difficult to believe (in the back of my mind, I think it’s just a made up story) and it involves a GE plant that makes jet engines in Durham, NC.  The link is from fast company.  This factory makes complicated jet engines yet there are no managers, no time clocks, etc…just teams that make engines and they all motivate themselves to making these high quality engines.  It’s basically a factory filled with a lot of highly driven employees and one plant manager.  It’s an interesting read but I still say…well, you know.