The Manager - Edition 65 - Help Them Succeed - By Rob Lambert

Welcome to the Cultivated Management Newsletter

Hi. 

I hope you are having a cracking weekend and are all set for the week ahead. 

It is Mother’s Day weekend here in the UK so we’re having a lovely Roast Dinner today (Sunday) with family. It’s a nice time of the year, especially as Spring has sprung, the weather has turned brighter, and the clocks have moved forward giving us more daylight in the evening. 

This week I’ve been thinking about becoming smarter at work and how many places I’ve seen where becoming smarter clearly isn’t the core goal. 

As a manager it’s important to discover quickly what your people want from their lives and careers. And then help them achieve it, in line with the work in the workplace of course.

A manager should help people become quicker, better, faster, more employable and smarter. 

I tell people in my teams that when they chose to leave my management and leadership, I expect them to be quicker, better, faster, more employable and smarter. I want them to be the most marketable person in the job market. It means I’ve done my job, they’ve grown intensively, and they’ve been able to add epic value to the company in the process. 

Yet many managers don’t create environments where this happens, and actually, in many organisations it is entirely possible people are coming home less intelligent than when they went in. Trust me - I see this too often - talented people totally under-utilised, bored and frustrated at the lack of value they are adding. They likely once tried to add value but due to a variety of reasons (typically all the responsibility of management) they faced too much resistance. Eventually these people will leave, or become jaded, or even worse - stick around.

So, if the people you work with aren’t growing, trying new things, pushing the boundaries of their roles, developing new skills and constantly pushing the bar higher, you have some work to do. Leading by example is a manager’s role.

And if you lead by example by becoming smarter and pushing the boundaries of your role and skills - others will follows.

It’s why, when I see talented people lacking drive, not being utilised, not using their strengths and generally feeling jaded - I know there is a management problem. 

Go forth, find out what people want from their career, help them find it and develop people who are super employable. If you do this you’ll grow, they’ll grow, and the business will grow. When this happens, it pushes you even further as a manager – you have to find even more ways to make the system and work better to prevent these super talents from leaving! 

Have a great week.

Rob

Cool Stuff To Click On

1 - Really did find this useful, even some of the older school project management stuff. A guidebook for designers, producers and project managers.

2 - Balancing the many pillars in your life is a core concept of Cultivated Management. So in your spare time it could be a good idea to start a new creative project. I'm tempted to commit to this 100 day project and get my Zero To Keynote book done.

3 - Free Design Thinking course for Stanford University? Yes Please.

4 - A super useful site full of cognitive biases. Very helpful.

5 - This is really good - advice for leaders and managers of start-ups (well - all businesses really) to have the discipline to follow process and do what requires being done. This is GOLD. It's how high performing teams perform. They do what needs to be done every day. 

6 - Don't compare yourself to others. Well, at least try not to.

Thanks for reading this week's edition of The Manager. 

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Thanks
Rob..