Musings on management

Wow, long time no blog! I started this one about 3 months ago, and things have changed since then – but I still think it’s a useful reflection on management for anyone who, like me, is reaching the point in their library career where it is a consideration. Enjoy!
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I’ve been thinking a lot about good management recently, not just in the context of a library service but more generally, as a set of skills.

Professionally, I’ve never previously considered myself to be ‘management material’. In my working life, I have always positioned myself as someone who delivers results, rather than someone who makes decisions about what should be achieved – I found the idea of management-level power and responsibility scary and not at all appealing. I’ve always been happy to subscribe to strategies dictated from higher up, to aim to exceed the bar that someone else has set. My attitude has always been can-do, and I’m quite good at identifying how to – but what to do at the macro level has mostly been someone else’s department.

I had framed this lack of lean-and-hungry zeal in the context of my chosen profession. I’m a librarian, a naturally assistive rather than assertive role, service-orientated, helpful. And having always been lucky enough to be managed well, perhaps I had been content to follow simply because I had had great confidence in where I was being led, and in the people doing the leading.

Moreover, I feared that management would take me away from what I love most in my job – direct contact with service users: forming strong relationships with them; the high of getting it right for them, and of seeing them benefit from that.

My last post had a much more diverse and devolved range of responsibilities than I had had hitherto, and this along with other factors got me to thinking about myself as a professional, and the career path I would like to carve out for myself in years to come. For the first time, that wish list now includes a wish to take charge. Take charge of more than just my own workload: of procedures, of planning, of people. Call the doctor, I’ve contracted managerial ambitions!

I think the main lightbulb moment behind this change has been my realisation that, if you are a manager, you do still have direct contact with customers of sorts – that is, with people to whom you’re delivering a service. It’s merely that the service you are providing is good management. And the client base you are delivering it to is not the service users, or even the person paying your salary; it is the people you have been assigned to manage.

Management, like government, cannot be effectively imposed. If you can’t persuade your team to buy what you are selling, you will fail as a manager. Even if your team nevertheless succeed, it will be in spite of you, rather than because of you. If, however, you can offer leadership that they can confidently follow; authority that they can respect; and support that they can trust, you can enable them to achieve far more than they ever could have done without you there.

Looked at from this perspective, a desire for managerial responsibility has no conflict at all with a service-oriented work ethic. And so, I can confess: I’d like to manage staff one day. And I’d like to be great at it, thank you very much. And so I’ve been giving it quite a bit of thought.

It seems to me that there are three core attributes that have been shared by all the excellent managers I have had the good fortune to work under. These are the traits that I should seek to emulate to prepare myself for a future managerial role.

Competence

This is probably the most important thing for anyone who seeks to tell other people what to do – they should be demonstrably knowledgeable in their field, and capable in their own role within the organisation. It is possible for managees to forgive their manager any number of shortcomings and irritating quirks, as long as what needs doing that only the manager can do gets done efficiently. It’s not the only thing that matters, but it’s the bedrock on which everything else is built. Competence at the top inspires confidence in the workforce, as well as simply serving as a good example.

Clarity

As a manager, a good bit of one’s time will inevitably be spent telling people to do things they don’t want to do, and making sure they do it. Nobody enjoys this. However, from my observation, management style is key to how painful this process is for all parties.

Most workers accept the fact that they will sometimes have to do things they don’t like. However, if you want co-operation and commitment, rather than mere mulish compliance, it is essential to communicate clearly what exactly it is that must be done; why it is that it has to be done; and when exactly it has to be done by. This covers the manager’s back as much as it helps their team to find focus.

Clarity is also about everyone knowing the difference between a discussion and a decision, an idea and an instruction. The clearly written summary of assigned action points is the manager’s friend. Nobody likes being told they have failed to do something they were never aware they needed to do in the first place!

Consistency

This goes back to confidence, which is to my mind the lynchpin of the relationship between a manager and their team, and the effectiveness of the team overall. Nothing will demoralize a workforce faster than a sense of instability. People who think that unpredictability as a management style is somehow motivating, that chronic insecurity keeps staff ‘on their toes’, are little better than sadists in my opinion.

Quite aside from the human element, it’s counterproductive. If half of a team’s time is spent trying to keep track of the fluctuating tides of their manager’s mood and allegiances of the moment, then that is half its potential productivity lost. If your team is hesitant to follow your instructions because they are often countermanded or simply disowned whenever it becomes expedient, then delays and failures of delivery will soon become systemic.

Consistency is also important when it comes to interpersonal behaviour. You can’t tell your team that you value and support them one moment, and then attempt to cow them by emphasising their disposability and dependence upon your good will then next. You cannot expect one member of your team to trust you, if you share their colleague’s secrets and shortcomings behind their back. It is important to remember – teams talk. If you try and play one off against another, you’re going to be found out.

There are plenty of other characteristics that may be desirable in a manager, and different teams will want different things at different times: charisma; creativity; caution; compassion – these attributes and many more may be called upon at different stages of any management career. But without the holy trinity above – competence, clarity and consistency – you will not be able to provide a good management service to your team; they will not buy in to your management of them; and everyone will suffer as a result.