| Profil de SkipRandom Thoughts from a C...Blog |  Outils  Aide |
|
11 novembre How long can they manage without you?The season of holidays and vacations through the end of 2005 are
rapidly heading our way (It's hard to believe how quickly this year has
gone by!). As I plan on taking some time off during this
time, it may me think: "How long can they manage without me?"
A day? A few days? Over a week? Longer? How you
answer that and what happens when you return after a period of time is
very telling on how you manage others. If
my answer is "a day", this means that my team depends too heavily on me
for daily decisions and I am a major bottleneck in their
productivity. They don't have any authority to make
decisions. Everything has to come through me. This is a
result of a lack of delegation, autonomy, and enough understanding of
roles and responsibilities for each individual and functional
area. If my answer is too long, say a couple of weeks or
longer, that could be another problem. This means that my team
doesn't need to report back to me or need my help in making longer term
decisions. They don't have any accountability to report
back to me. Chances are that they may be making some assumptions
that at least need to be validated by me. I need to be there to
provide checkpoints to ensure that the team has what they need and are
making the correct assumptions in their decision making. Here's how our department is made up: We have a cross-matrix between projects and functional areas of operation. Within
projects, we have a couple of full-time project managers that manage
several dedicated project teams. These teams represent not only
each functional area of operation within our department, but also other
departments. The project managers manage the overall
cost, schedule, quality and scope of projects that are assigned to the
groups by myself and other departmental managers. If
something significant changes in any of these areas, the project
managers are to escalate issues to one or more of
the departmental managers. If I am not here, other
departmental managers will assist in my absence. The
other part of the matrix is dedicated teams for each functional area of
operation. Roles and responsibilites of each of these areas are
clearly understood by each team. They are lead by part-time
functional managers who not only help provide direction and
esclation but also work along side the others on the team in the same
functional role. If something significant changes in
each of the areas, the functional managers are to escalate issues to me
as their departmental manager. Since these functional areas don't
change very much in roles and responsibilities, escalation doesn't
really happen. Most of the issues are around projects, so
they go to the Project Manager for escalation. So
what do I do? Each manager is focused on particular
functional roles and particular projects. I am the orchestra
leader. I am looking at the projects and department as a whole,
making sure that cross-project or cross-functional interactions
are working smoothly. I also meet with the
managers on a weekly basis to make sure that they all are on
the same page with me. I also focus on overall improvements
to areas that are weaker and work with the appropriate managers and
groups in coordinating those efforts. My focus is also on the
future direction for the department, where we are going and how to get
there. How long do I think
they can manage without me? Given the way I have set things up, I
would say a couple of weeks without at least talking with managers
to make sure things are going ok. How long was it when I
first started managing? I would say only a couple of
days at the most without a lot of chaos and work to come back
to. I would say that I have made progress! I
also have to be comfortable with the fact that people can be
trusted to get the job done without me to a certain degree.
This is difficult for many managers, as they want to or have to feel
like they are the most important and smartest person in the room.
For me, I have the confidence that I have my place, while being
surrounded by very important and smart people (many much smarter than
me!). Commentaires (2)Pour ajouter un commentaire, connectez-vous avec votre identifiant Windows Live ID (si vous utilisez Messenger ou Xbox LIVE, vous avez un identifiant Windows Live ID). Connectez-vous Vous n'avez pas d'identifiant Windows Live ID ? Inscrivez-vous
RétroliensBlogs Web qui font référence à ce billet
|
|
|
