Highly Effective Managers – Why Are People Surprised?
Jun 26 2017

“Beaker” from The Muppet Show by Tim Rogerson on display at Art on 5th Gallery in Austin, Texas

Sometimes it surprises me what surprises others about what great management is all about! I’m glad the google data supports what most top managers and employees with good bosses already know.

Google Employees Weighed In on What Makes a Highly Effective Manager. Technical Expertise Came in Dead Last – Is it possible to engineer the perfect boss? Google was up to the task and found data that will forever change the keys to getting promoted.

Key takeaways from the article:

Although technical skills made the list, it came in dead last. The first? Be a good coach!

What employees valued most were even-keeled bosses.

Manager’s who helped people puzzle through problems were more effective.

Top-performing managers took an interest in employees’ lives and careers.

So as much emphasis as we seem to place on STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) skills these days, it is still the soft skills that make a top-notch leader and manager. Go figure.  Isn’t it nice when the data supports common sense (i.e, what I thought most of us knew already). 😀

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Leadership, Management and Unicorns
Jan 20 2012

The older I get more experience I gain working for different organizations, the more I realize that good leadership is rare and good management is even rarer.  I think we all see this played out on TV with the incompetence demonstrated by our business and political leaders.  I don’t really know why this happens and it’s sometimes a miracle that companies get built and keep going.  It’s somewhat of an enigma to me….might be a bunch of great workers covering up for the incompetence of their leaders & managers.

The reason I think good management is rarer than good leadership is that one can be a good leader by finding and getting out of the way of great talent.  They can also be a visionary leader with admittedly no management skills, but they are smart enough to find the good managers, support them, and let them do what they do best.  Great managers listen and then react to input in order to make the jobs/lives of their team easier, more interesting, and fun without being overbearing/micro managing.  To manage people on a daily basis and make things happen with so many personalities around the table is one of the most challenging things to do well while earning the respect & admiration of your team.

When you happen upon a great leader who is also a great manager, grab on to them…you’ve found a unicorn.

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