The Manager - 105 - Behave the right way
THE MANAGER - BY ROB LAMBERT
Hi,
Hope you are safe and well.
Life is busy in the Lambert HQ.
Now the boys are back at school I’ve been busy creating a couple of new videos this week (see the new section below), as well as laying down over 2000 words of my new book “The Manager – meditations on management”.
If all goes to plan it should be ready for editing by the end of September. I’m hoping to have it ready for the New Year.
I’m also preparing to take the boys camping this weekend!!
Sadly, there was an accident this week involving a school bus in Winchester. It was indeed the school’s bus that my son goes to. He thankfully wasn’t on it, and thankfully no-one was killed. But it made the national news and several children were seriously injured.
Of course, it makes you ponder the fragility of life and take more moments to be grateful for our time here on planet dust. But I was also inspired by the actions of the Head Teacher.
On hearing the news, she made an immediate statement to parents, then visited the site to help and see the children. She later visited them, and their parents, in hospital.
As with all of these things now, the social media (Facebook) frenzy started with people speculating what happened, rumours moving quickly and of course, people looking for justice. This is natural.
But one comment made me think about life as a manager and leader.
On hearing the news of the Head Teacher visiting the children in hospital somebody asked, “Do you think she actually cares, or is just showing up because she has to?”.
I believe she cares. I truly do. Who wouldn’t?
But more importantly is the act of showing up. Of being there. Of doing the right thing.
Every day our actions will always speak louder than our words, no matter our intent.
I’m reminded of a case when someone came to me and said that a colleague had a bad attitude. I was early in my management career (i.e. – had no idea what I was doing) and I spoke with this person and said, “I hear you have a bad attitude”.
They responded, as many would, with “No I don’t.”
That was the end of that conversation. It should have been about behaviours.
Because truly, we never know what people think, or what their intentions really are. All we can do is work with behaviours; what they do, what they say, how they say it, their body language and their work output.
And just like the Head Teacher – we will never know what people think. We will never really know their intentions. We will rarely understand why people do what they do.
But we can always study their behaviours.
Our actions always speak loudest. And even when we feel rubbish, don’t like someone, can’t face a situation – we need to remember – that other people are seeing our behaviours.
And at times, as a manager or leader, we must simply do the right thing – whether we feel like it or not.
Go forth and behave in the way you wish others to see you. Let them see you behave in ways that are professional, kind, caring and positive.
And never manage based on what you think they think. Always manage based on behaviours. Their real intentions will always remain hidden – but their behaviours won’t.
I believe it is always better to lead by example. And the power of this is, you don’t need to have the title of manager or leader to do this.
Until next time.
I’m going to load the car and prepare for two nights of zero sleep.
Rob..
What's new on Cultivated Management?
This week I released two posts and videos:
1. Don't hire fast and fire fast. A rant about why rushing the recruitment process has a people and money cost. https://cultivatedmanagement.com/hireslowly/
2. 14 Rules I live by when leading teams - https://cultivatedmanagement.com/becoming-a-leader
FOOD FOR YOUR MANAGEMENT BRAIN
1. Enjoyed this short read on raising standards to lower employee stress, particularly the idea of treating people as "their better future self" - https://www.inc.com/deborah-grayson-riegel/to-lower-your-employees-stress-raise-your-standards.html
2. Remote working should not be all day conference calls. I coached someone who spend all day on conference calls - leaving evenings and weekends to do the work - https://hbr.org/2020/09/remote-work-doesnt-have-to-mean-all-day-video-calls
3. Time anxiety - that feeling that we're not optimising every single minute of our lives - https://nesslabs.com/time-anxiety
4. “To be led by a coward is to be controlled by all that the coward fears. To be led by a fool is to be led by the opportunists who control the fool.” - https://www.brainpickings.org/2020/08/23/octavia-butler-parable-leaders/
5. Wow. Companies that help people disappear. Nothing management related, but found this interesting. If The Manager doesn't arrive next week....well...you'll know what happened. https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20200903-the-companies-that-help-people-vanish
6. Algorithms come with serious side effects - https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/sep/06/from-viral-conspiracies-to-exam-fiascos-algorithms-come-with-serious-side-effects
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Thanks
Rob..