Manage Oneself, then Up, Across, and Down
Over the years, I have frequently had long, unstructured discussions with people at every level in the organizations of which I was part about any subject of concern to them.
The conversations most often gravitated to management, either aspirations to it, dissatisfaction with it, or confusion about it. To avoid ambiguity, I would ask each person to describe the first and most important responsibility of any manager. The incredibly diverse responses always had one thing in common. They were downward looking. Management inevitably had to do with handling of those over whom it had authority. That perception is completely wrong.
- Oneself: The first and paramount responsibility is to manage one’s self. One’s own integrity, character, wisdom, knowledge, time, temperament, words and acts. It is a complex, never ending, incredibly difficult, oft shunned task, yet one without which no person is fit for authority no matter how much they acquire.
- Up: The second responsibility is to manage those who have authority over us. Bosses, directors, regulators ad infinitum. Without their consent or support, how can one follow conviction, exercise judgment or create an environment in which others can achieve?
- Across: The third responsibility is to manage one’s peers, those over whom we have no power and who have no power over us. In this group, one must include associates, competitors, the entire environment if you will. Down: The fourth responsibility is then obvious, for there is nothing else left. It is to manage those over whom we have authority. The common response is that all one’s time will be consumed managing self, superiors and peers, leaving little or no time to control subordinates. Exactly!
One need only employ good people, introduce them to the concept, induce them to practice it, then stay out of the way. If subordinates properly manage themselves, you and their peers, and if they replicate the concept with their subordinates, what have you to do but see they are properly recognized and rewarded.
The next question is obvious. How can one manage bosses, competitors and associates? The answer is equally obvious. One cannot. One can only understand them, persuade them, motivate them, influence them — eventually the proper word emerges, lead them.
It is leadership this world so badly needs, and so-called “scientific management” it so sadly gets.
There is, however, an immense difficulty in this perception of things, for failure is constant and certain. If one’s own conduct, intelligence and effort are deficient, as at times they inevitably must be, it is a failure of the first magnitude. If one fails to gain the confidence, consent and support of superiors, it is a failure of the second magnitude. If one is subverted by peers, dominated by competitors or hamstrung by mindless regulation, it is a failure of the third magnitude. If those over whom we have authority cannot understand, accept and practice the theory, it is a failure of the fourth magnitude. One must look to oneself for every failure. There is no other excuse. None! Absolutely!
via Dee Hock