Growth, Restraint and The Rules of Wealth - Cultivated Management Newsletter
Hi,
Welcome to this week's Cultivated Management newsletter.
Hope you are well.
Growth and Restraint
This week I have been thinking a lot about growth versus restraint and these two being the foremost approaches and thoughts about management.
One manager locks things down, stops you doing it, reminds you of the rules, creates over-bearing policy, sees themselves as protecting the business and probably they are right to assume this intention.
The other manager frees people to do the right thing, has just enough rules and sees themselves as empowering people rather than restricting them.
One is focused on protecting and locking down. The other is focused on freeing and enabling.
As a manager there will be times you need to do both, but in my experience most managers fall heavily to either side. In some companies one is preferred over the other.
Say you work in healthcare or finance - you'll likely need to do more protecting, than say a manager working in a digital agency.
The agile startup with restrictive IT policy.
The support team who find the customers a nuisance and try and block them from getting in touch.
The manager who gives no freedom for their people to try new things.
The manager who doesn't follow process when the process works and needs to be followed.
I'm not saying either is better than the other. In fact a good manager has the ability to work with both elements well. But if you tend to one side or the other you'll need to work in an environment that matches, otherwise be prepared to bang your head on the wall often.
The hard environments to master are the ones where there is a mix when one is needed over the other.
The Rules of Wealth
My book of the week is The Rules Of Wealth. As you know Cultivated Management is about you, the person, who happens to be a manager. Your management will never be better than you as a person, so it's important to work on the pillars of management.
One of the pillars is money and wealth.
In the Rules Of Wealth, Richard Templar explains some of the rules about becoming wealthy. They range from basic savings to more advanced strategies around investing.
Financial security is a goal many of us aim for; things like being mortgage free, well funded in to retirement and providing enough money for our families. As a manager it helps greatly if you have the security that you are getting wealthy - and this doesn't mean you have to keep earning more, although that helps.
Having a financial safety net can also give you confidence to make braver decisions about your work. It also helps to have a side income from some other source as well as knowing that your pension is being topped up ready for retirement.
Being in charge of your money outside of work certainly brings piece of mind to your work. Worrying about money all of the time has a very detrimental effect on life.
The book is easy to read and simple to work through. The book is set out in sections from basic savings through to investing, donating and treating money well. It's a really good book. It has kick started a new plan for myself and a desire to be smarter with money.
As much as we don't like talking about money (certainly here in the UK), the reality is we need a certain level of it. And this book will help you work out how to use your earnings wisely. Well worth a read.
Blog Articles
10 Ways to hire a niche employee
Security will become a differentiator
Credit for work done rarely flows where it should
Department of Generating Cool Ideas
On LinkedIn - Blazingly Simple Guide To Submitting To Conferences
Until next week.
Rob