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Thursday, July 17, 2008

Pick an Extreme

Okay, no middle ground options. If you had to pick one of each of the following, which extremes would you choose and still hope to be reasonably effective as a manager?

[ Please consider them separately and not as a group.]

  1. (a) Micromanaging or (b) Heavy Delegation?
  2. (a) Rapidly Multitasking toward Several Goals or (b) Slow and Methodical toward One Goal at a Time?
  3. (a) Hiring Too Quickly or (b) Firing Too Slowly?
  4. (a) Frequent Consultation with Staff on Decisions or (b) No Consultation?
  5. (a) Too Friendly or Too Detached?
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5 comments:

  1. tócsa6:54 AM

    Hello Michael,

    I love this post. Very intriguing!

    Here are my two cents (I spent circa 2-3 seconds to answer each one in my head):

    1. b (Obvious choice, if you focus on talent and strenght when hiring)

    2. b (Multitasking forces you to divide your attention and focus on too many things. I like "rapid and concentrated focus on one goal" though, if the bigger picture is already clear.)

    3. a (Talent escapes too quickly. :)) Besides, firing too slowly costs you time, money and bad feelings on both sides.)

    4. a (No brainer for me.)

    5. a (No brainer detto. Depends on personality though. Still, I'm yet to meet a great manager who is too detached and his/her team still condiders him/her a leader.)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Larry Sheldon8:12 AM

    1. (b) Heavy Delegation?
    2. (a) Rapidly Multitasking toward Several Goals
    3. (b) Firing Too Slowly?
    4. (a) Frequent Consultation with Staff on Decisions
    5. (b) Too Detached?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous8:47 AM

    1. b) Heavy Delegation? -- Focus on strengths and allow them to have control over their department
    2. (a) Rapidly Multitasking toward Several Goals -- Assigning multiple tasks/goals helps departmetns know what is going on and if help is needed with projects you can create a "team" atmosphere
    3. (b) Firing Too Slowly? -- take the time to interview properly and you won't have the later problem of firing to slowly.
    4. (a) Frequent Consultation with Staff on Decisions -- this creates both accountablily and builds a good repore between management and departments
    5. a) Too Friendly (this should be obvious) being detached from your departments creates tention and can lead to a poor work environment with un-needed stress.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Kurt Harden9:54 AM

    babaa

    ReplyDelete
  5. Michael Wade8:23 AM

    Thanks for the comments! I'm still thinking about these. Will post an update.

    ReplyDelete