Just read a great post over on Management Craft, in which Lisa talks about the impact of relationships and behavior on management effectiveness.
Lisa's got some great insight to share about how we can destroy or create success purely based on how we treat other people, and how we choose to interact with them.
I've met plenty of abrasive people who deny that their abrasiveness is a choice - they say things like "That's just the way I'm wired." I think that's a crock. They're just happy with the status quo ("It's working for me...")
In Lisa's article, I love premise 4: "Great Managers Do What Others Won't."
That got me thinking about what the best managers I've worked for. What did they do that the others didn't? It was amazingly easy to tell the difference between the best and the rest, and also very easy to rattle off a list of what set them apart. The best have done things like:
- Taking an interest in my success.
- Holding me accountable for my commitments.
- Telling me the truth. Consistently.
- Giving me the scoop early when big changes were coming, and trusting me to use the information appropriately.
- Giving me more than I could handle, but helping me get through it.
- Taking the time to make sure I learned from my mistakes.
- Telling me that they appreciated what I was doing.