My worst managers were “transparent” as in they were basically a telephone game actor between me and my skip, with a little extra anxiety mixed in. Needless to say, I couldn’t quit those jobs fast enough. Who comes up with this nonsense?
Transparent leadership beats servant leadership
151–160 of 258 posts
Re: Transparent leadership beats servant leadership
#152Earlier quoted context omitted.
> "The Coaching Habit." Oh wow. This comment just completely explained the worst "manager" I ever had. They must have been using this terrible method. >no matter how direct the request was or how much it really needed management authority behind it. They nearly drove me insane with this circular cycle. It was the only job I ever walked out on. I emailed on a Sunday night that I would not be returning to the office af…
Tell the manager you are assuming their authority. You will force the answer out of them either way
This is really how it’s done. Don’t go over their head; go under their boss’s.
Re: Transparent leadership beats servant leadership
#153Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's a big difference between protecting a team from all the shit and hiding it from them completely. It's good to be a transparent shit umbrella. The team should absolutely have visibility into what's going on, and understand why certain decisions are being made, but a good manager does need to step in to avoid the shit hitting them directly.
Love the idea of the transparent shit umbrella. Some people advocate keeping the team inside and telling them it's raining. But how far does that go? Are you keeping them in an underground bunker? Or is it a room with a window? A skyscraper with floor to ceiling windows surrounding them? I'm of the mind that if it's possible, the team needs to be outside in the shit rain while protected by the shit umbrella. But they…
To your point about dysfunctional orgs:
After deploying your transparent shit umbrella, your next problem is your own shitty boss or your boss's boss who will get pissed off you are using a transparent umbrella once that transparency starts blowingback on them. Because once your team learns that it's raining shit outside, they will want to know what you're doing to mitigate, reverse, or sidestep the shit. Some of the time, the things you confide to your team in the course of this feedback will piss off adjacent teams or some people up the ladder once they get wind of it (your opinion of some decisions, or the perceived negative consequences of your mitigation strategy on said people) Hence your umbrella being transparent makes what people euphemistically call "managing up" much more fucking annoying. I don't claim that there is an alternative, just that it's a fact of the principled life (one result being getting fired, often ironically for not being a "team player"). I don't have a fix, but would like to hear some if anyone has any.
Re: Transparent leadership beats servant leadership
#154Earlier quoted context omitted.
When I was a manager I had to take a training based on the book "The Coaching Habit." It left me really sour on the role, and explained some of the behavior of previous managers of mine that I least appreciated, specifically that their approach to management seemed to be to just get me to articulate and explain my problems over and over until I somehow rubber-ducked myself into solving them myself. When that didn't w…
My biggest complaint about some people is that they measure success by the act of doing and rarely by the result. If I help someone, I am checking if you no longer need help. If I say I’m going to be there at a certain time, I remember every time I’m late. If I do laundry a certain way so I won’t lose a sock, I make sure I haven’t lost a sock. When I do something, my brain replays me “Oh the last time you did this, y…
How do you measure results until something is done? It's simply not possible to reliably measure or predict the result of something before it's done, and at best any numbers will be incredibly rough estimates.
The only thing we can control for is the act of doing.
Re: Transparent leadership beats servant leadership
#155Earlier quoted context omitted.
> “bring me solutions, not problems" If someone says this unprompted, I’d suspect they aren’t a manager, they aren’t even an employee. They provide roughly the same input one provides while ordering food at a restaurant. Basically they are a customer, but also on the payroll. That being said, there are some cases where this might be said out of frustration. I’ve seen in my life a few people whose output is mostly fin…
When I say something like this it usually means “I don’t want to dictate your job to you. You’re here because you’re smart, ambitious, and capable. We’ve talked at length in team settings and 1:1 about our goals. What do you think are the problems that need attention, and what solutions do you propose?” The anti-pattern I’ve seen from some folks is that they never want to propose solutions because then it’s someone e…
> When I say something like this it usually means…
Yes, exactly. This isn’t “do my job for me”, this is “do the job you have, and solve the problems you should be able to solve”. It’s also, at times, “pointing at fires is junior shit - find a fire extinguisher while you call 911.”
Re: Transparent leadership beats servant leadership
#156leadership is not a role it is a shared responsibility; an emergent effect we can all nurture.
Re: Transparent leadership beats servant leadership
#157I have a few management tips I think are worth something, perhaps I'll start with this one.
Take all the things you don't like about your former managers, and don't do them.
Then take all the things you thought were good and copy them.
That's it
Re: Transparent leadership beats servant leadership
#158Earlier quoted context omitted.
Three buckets of "management": 1. Mentoring: "this is what I did in a similar situation..." - overused and often not as similar or detailed as needed. 2. Coaching: "what do you think?" valuable for longer term development that depends on deeper thought and introspection; Your immediate problems a generally neither of these. 3. Sponsoring: "You mentioned you're looking for X and I heard about a new project where you c…
"Can't" is not why people become managers. At least be thoughtful and say "Won't" (because they prefer management)
I intentionally used the word can't, because I don't think it's an option that they're choosing, rather a lack of ability.
Re: Transparent leadership beats servant leadership
#159I don’t really relate to many comments here stating “my approach is X”, or “I went from servant-leader to process-master-whatever leader”.
I’ve found that trying to be anything but flexible to the environment is unrealistic and even egotistical.
E.g, There are some environments where the CEO is so “command and control” that the “I want us all to bring our authentic selves to the peace circle of work, and from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs, we will figure out a synergy that works for all” just won’t ever work.
And for me, being unable to adapt the approach to environment suggests ‘one trick pony’.
Re: Transparent leadership beats servant leadership
#160Earlier quoted context omitted.
My biggest complaint about some people is that they measure success by the act of doing and rarely by the result. If I help someone, I am checking if you no longer need help. If I say I’m going to be there at a certain time, I remember every time I’m late. If I do laundry a certain way so I won’t lose a sock, I make sure I haven’t lost a sock. When I do something, my brain replays me “Oh the last time you did this, y…
How do you measure results until something is done? It's simply not possible to reliably measure or predict the result of something before it's done, and at best any numbers will be incredibly rough estimates. The only thing we can control for is the act of doing.
No I mean you measure after.
Some people just don’t seem to measure after though.