Silver Bullet for good management and eating wild - Cultivated Management newsletter
Hi and welcome to this week's Cultivated Management newsletter.
Is there a silver bullet for easy management?
I often get asked whether there is a silver (magic) bullet approach to making life as a manager easier. There isn't.
But there is an approach that has helped me achieve great initiatives, change and growth in my career and with my teams. In a nutshell it is clarity.
Clarity
In my new role as Head of Engagement I've been experimenting with many different strategies and methods of engagement. All of them work, and all of them don't. Confusing, right?
The key to their success is clarity.
The key to their failure is lack of clarity.
Clarity is crucial for change, easier management and higher levels of engagement
Your team need clarity over why they are working at your company (purpose of the team), how they are expected to work (strategies, approach, methods), how they contribute (expectations), how they measure their success (metrics and measures), how they grow (coaching plans) and what the business is going to give them in return (pay, growth, support, opportunities, mentoring etc).
The business need clarity over why it exists (purpose), how you achieve success (strategies, approach, methods), how people contribute (expectation of people), how you measure success (metrics and measures against purpose), how you expect people to grow (a plan for them, not just the business) and how you will support your people (resources, training, engagement).
If you have this clarity - anything is possible. If you don't have this clarity you'll get swamped down, communication will be stilted and people will be bundling around. Clarity attracts people to the plan and if you have a plan for work, you should also have a plan for the people.
If you have this clarity you have high engagement.
Sadly very few people go through their career even having clarity over what the business is trying to achieve, let alone how they are involved in it.
If you want to make management slightly easier then gaining clarity on the following will aid greatly.
Purpose
Strategies/Approach/Methods (basically how?)
How people play a part
Metrics used to measure against purpose
How people are expected to grow
How the business will support people
Book of the Week
This week's book of the week is The Wild Diet. This is a health and wellness book by Abel James from The Fat Burning Man. Abel also has a great weekly podcast.
It's a breezy read about returning to a wild way of eating and living. If you're in to health this is a good book. It gives you ideas on how to do fasting, how to eat wild and why it's important.
Managers need to be role models in everything we do, including health. And as poor health is such a big problem recently, and can become a huge burden on business resources, it's important to be informed about the many ways to improve your own health, but also support those in your teams.
Good book, great podcast.
Until next time.
Go forth and seek clarity....and health.
Rob