My manager scrutinises my workplan with her invisible magnifying lens. She 'ums' and 'ahs' as she reads on, sweat pours down my forehead in anticipation of the invisible guillotine board. Sure enough, being the perfectionist and the micromanager that she is, she tells me that my workplan (my personal task planner) could and should be improved. She is the 'mountain' currently and I have been seeing every encounter with her as a giant uphill incline with no forward movement. A silent tear trickles down my cheek.
Ever experienced such a moment? Maybe not as dramatic but excruciatingly painful none-the-less? Well, this is not a forum for 'bashing the boss', this is about learning to look for signs of good leadership. Learning to identify whether the "pain" leads to a "gain" or whether you are just hurting yourself for no good reason.
Sun Tzu's THE ART OF WAR (translations by Gary Gagliardi), states that the characteristics of a strategic leadership require one to be smart, trustworthy, caring, brave, and Strict. Does your leader have these qualities?
Intelligent - In a larger system, intelligence is required to know your battle ground. look for intelligent qualities in your manager, a balance of EQ and IQ. Also learn to differentiate the "know it alls" from those who really know. If you feel you cannot learn from your leader, then you have crossed out one big important check box.
Honesty and Self reflection - Honesty is required to create successful strategic methods of working. Whoever said "Honesty is the best policy" knew what they were talking about. An Honest manager is one who will give you honest feedback to help you improve as an individual. An honest individual is also one who can look into the mirror and admit that they are sometimes wrong. If your Manager does not like feedback themselves, then there sits a person who has not self reflected.
Caring - Caring and compassion are other key philosophical factors of good Management, if your manager is insensitive to your needs, if you do not see compassion in the eyes, he/she will not be able to support you.
Bravery - As Sun Tsu once said, "Bravery is necessary to weather the adversities of climate". We must be able to fail and keep going. Have you ever been given a task that requires work from another Team, and the task fails because the Leaders within the organisation failed to communicate? Is your Leader innovative and creative? Does he/she attempt to find other ways to get the task done till it is completed? The sign of a brave leader is one who will look for alternate means to achieve an outcome. The "Never give up" attitude is a must!
Strict - Last but not the least, it is very important for us to do the unpleasant parts of the jobs as well as the fun parts, if your leader is unreliable (because of shifting objectives on his/her whim) then supporting him/her will be very difficult.
A very beautiful and wise person once told me "Part of the beauty of growing up is in knowing which battles can be fought and which ones to walk away from".
Ever experienced such a moment? Maybe not as dramatic but excruciatingly painful none-the-less? Well, this is not a forum for 'bashing the boss', this is about learning to look for signs of good leadership. Learning to identify whether the "pain" leads to a "gain" or whether you are just hurting yourself for no good reason.
Sun Tzu's THE ART OF WAR (translations by Gary Gagliardi), states that the characteristics of a strategic leadership require one to be smart, trustworthy, caring, brave, and Strict. Does your leader have these qualities?
Intelligent - In a larger system, intelligence is required to know your battle ground. look for intelligent qualities in your manager, a balance of EQ and IQ. Also learn to differentiate the "know it alls" from those who really know. If you feel you cannot learn from your leader, then you have crossed out one big important check box.
Honesty and Self reflection - Honesty is required to create successful strategic methods of working. Whoever said "Honesty is the best policy" knew what they were talking about. An Honest manager is one who will give you honest feedback to help you improve as an individual. An honest individual is also one who can look into the mirror and admit that they are sometimes wrong. If your Manager does not like feedback themselves, then there sits a person who has not self reflected.
Caring - Caring and compassion are other key philosophical factors of good Management, if your manager is insensitive to your needs, if you do not see compassion in the eyes, he/she will not be able to support you.
Bravery - As Sun Tsu once said, "Bravery is necessary to weather the adversities of climate". We must be able to fail and keep going. Have you ever been given a task that requires work from another Team, and the task fails because the Leaders within the organisation failed to communicate? Is your Leader innovative and creative? Does he/she attempt to find other ways to get the task done till it is completed? The sign of a brave leader is one who will look for alternate means to achieve an outcome. The "Never give up" attitude is a must!
Strict - Last but not the least, it is very important for us to do the unpleasant parts of the jobs as well as the fun parts, if your leader is unreliable (because of shifting objectives on his/her whim) then supporting him/her will be very difficult.
A very beautiful and wise person once told me "Part of the beauty of growing up is in knowing which battles can be fought and which ones to walk away from".
No comments:
Post a Comment