Productivity and three things I think every manager should know.
After reading an article this morning in my LinkedIn Daily Rundown https://www.dhirubhai.net/news/story/why-is-worker-productivity-slumping-5477300/ this morning about worker productivity, I spent a few minutes thinking back on my career, the times I felt most productive, and the times I know I was the least. In my case, it has always come down to my manager. If you are a manager, you might find this interesting. If you have time to read a few more paragraphs, please let me explain.
I began my career in IT over 50 years ago and have always chosen to be an individual contributor, avoiding the management track mostly because I hate all the emails, meetings, and politics managers seem to deal with daily. In that time I have had a lot of managers. Most were pretty average and seemed to fit the Peter Principal,?rising to just below their level of incompetence. While working for them, I felt neither highly motivated, nor particularly demotivated and did pretty average work.
There are at least two that I can remember who had somehow risen way beyond their level of incompetence. They were so bad, I had to get up each morning and have a discussion with myself as to whether I could take another day of working under them. I remember one, in particular who took full credit for anything one of his direct reports did that was good, but always said something to the effect of "I thought he was smarter than that" and laid it squarely at his direct report's feet anytime something went wrong. I can remember being called to his office simply so I could witness him dressing down another team mate. He did the same to me on more than one occasion. And, yes. Over time, I lost so much confidence and motivation that my productivity went to just about zero. I didn't blame personnel when they escorted me to the door. I would have walked me out too. But, I think they probably should have also asked themselves why someone with my prior track record would suddenly become so unproductive. Luckily, the organization I worked for was large enough that I was able to interview with another team and was back to work within a couple days under a better manager.
On the other hand, I can remember three: Ken Cumbus , Vishal G. , and Thomas Rabel ,?who I feel it was a privilege to work for and for whom, I know I was more productive (at least most of the time). They had three things in common that I think made the difference.
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First, I trusted them. I knew that if I made a mistake, they were going to take the hit for me. They might call me into the office or their cube, and let me know I was slipping up, but it was always between me and them and no one else. I watched them take the heat themselves rather than letting it come down on me. As a result, I tried that much harder because I didn't want them taking my heat. And, while they took the heat for my mistakes, they gave me full credit for my successes.
Which brings me to my second point. I knew they wanted to see me succeed. Not just so they would look good, but truly seemed more interested in mentoring and helping me do my best work. They were always there if I wanted to talk. With one of them, I remember taking almost daily walks where we would discuss what was going on that day, what I thought was most important, and how I could accomplish that. I knew they trusted me, and through their actions, they demonstrated their belief in me and my abilities. They didn't micromanage me. They didn't ask for constant updates (although they sometimes got them anyway just because I didn't want to be working on the wrong things or make them look bad due to my lack of understanding priorities). Instead, they told me what they needed and trusted that I would get the job done and would ask if I needed help.
Coming to my final point, I considered them friends and would be hurt today if I found out otherwise. I could talk to them about the things that were going on in my life outside of work without feeling they were uninterested. We did things together outside of the workplace, going to lunch together and in other ways socializing as friends.?I wanted to see them succeed at least as much as they wanted to see me do the same and I tried harder knowing that any success I had would reflect on our team and, in turn, on them and their leadership.
So, my best work has always, it seems, been for managers who I trusted, who trusted me and seemed to genuinely want to see me succeed, and who I considered to be my friends rather than just someone I worked for. I think the best managers probably all share at least these three characteristics.