What's Your Management Philosophy?

Whether written down or not, every business leader has a management philosophy (aka unique approach) that guides their decision-making and leadership style. These philosophies develop over many years of life and work experience, shaped by experiencing success and setbacks.

These “lessons learned” influence and imprint on us, and because we all have different experiences, there are likely hundreds of management philosophies that are as different as the leaders they represent.

There’s no right or wrong approach. However, the one thing that is vital is sharing. A leader has to share their philosophy because an organization’s success is dependent upon a team’s alignment around shared values, vision and purpose.?

Yet, the fact is that many leads fail to take the time to document and share their approach with the company and teams -- a missed opportunity with significant impact.?

Being transparent with and sharing your management philosophy is important because it ensures that you have the right people on your team. In this instance, I say “right” to refer to alignment; you want people to self-select in because they embrace your path forward OR opt out because it’s not for them. Both are equally valid and acceptable outcomes because at the end of the day,?it’s nearly impossible to execute on a strategic vision without alignment.

As you grow as a leader and gain experience and insight, your philosophy will evolve.

That’s why I wanted to share mine, not as a definitive model but as an example to inspire your own reflection and documentation.

Remember: there is no right or wrong here. You’ll probably disagree with a few parts of my philosophy, and that’s okay!?

Here is my Management Philosophy. It's something I share with all of our managers, as we often weave these principles into meetings, reports, and wherever we see fit at Goodwill of Western New York

Tom’s 12 Management Principles:?

1. Structure = Freedom – We provide a clear framework with boundaries. We empower our teams with freedom to act within these boundaries, with the need to seek permission only when wanting to leave said framework.
2. Teach people to fish, don't fish for them – It is much easier to do a task than to teach a task. When we take the time to teach, we grow our team.
3. Accountability and Constant Coaching – We strive to build a culture based on transparency and accountability that is supported by a mindset of continuous coaching.
4. Trust and Verify – Key metrics should be audited on a regular basis. Managers don’t assume work is being done efficiently, on-time, and in the right priority - but rather, they audit for the purpose of continuous improvement. Managers don’t micromanage or "punish", yet they do constantly identify areas that can use additional training and coaching as a way of always moving forward.
5. Data Driven Decision Making – We need accurate and timely data to make good decisions.
6. Team of Teams, Ours Not Mine – No one does it alone. We succeed when we work together as a team of teams that allows for individuality while also connecting and supporting each other with a shared framework based on our purpose and values.
7. Our Managers are Leaders, Not Bosses – Lead by example with a servant heart and attitude, not from a position of authority and power.
8. Shoulder to Shoulder – Our system requires “working managers” that are spending 90%+ of their time “shoulder to shoulder” on the floor with their teams.?
9. Create a Culture of Continuous Learning (from Michael Dell) – We never stop learning, and spend the necessary time and money to embrace ongoing development. We will develop career paths and learning plans for each employee with the goal of helping them achieve their greater personal goals, whether within Goodwill of Western New York, or with the next step in their career with another organization.
10. Less People Being Paid More– Investing in and training the best of the best enables us to be more efficient and productive with fewer employees. This gives us bandwidth to offer more competitive compensation packages.
11. Right People, Right Seats, Doing the Right Things Right – We will always strive to put the best people in the proper roles, and give them the training and support to be successful. We will not hesitate to continuously evaluate and modify our organizational structure to support and achieve our strategic objectives while providing opportunities for upward mobility from within whenever possible.
12. Embrace a Moonshot Mindset (from Peter Diamandis) – The concept is that a moonshot is going 10X bigger or better when everyone is pursuing incremental change. It means applying 10X thinking to all of our efforts and challenges vs just the standard 10% growth goals. The reason being that 1, when we only try to do 10% better, we put ourselves in direct competition with everyone else in our industry, which is a competition that we’re likely to lose. Shooting for 10X improvement and trying to do something radically challenging means we approach the problem in a completely different way. 2, we come up with more innovative solutions, and 3, exponential change is the only constant and the rate of change is increasing. We have to disrupt ourselves or someone else will.?

To sum it all up, I love learning -- from life, and from all of you! I’d love to hear some of your key management philosophy principles if you have one!

If you don’t, do you feel like it would be a useful exercise to capture your own?

It can be a bit of work the first time, but sometimes it takes a little extra work to grow your leadership wings. Soar, don’t settle!?