The people in my office are smart, creative and self-motivated professionals. I want them to do their best and work at peak efficiency. Hence, I need to manage them effectively and appropriately. Here’s what I think will be my part:
1. I need to measure outcomes and not inputs.
It’s not how many hours people spent in the office that matters, it’s what they accomplish while they’re there. I don’t want my people taking up space, tip tapping the keyboard for hours and not accomplishing much. If they aren’t enjoying their work and their lives I wouldn’t be getting the best they can offer. So I will let them have their lives and try to keep them happy. I must layout their expected outputs and get their commitment to deliver them on a specified date. With this they will be in the office because they want to and they will work because they are eager to get things done.
2. I shouldn’t measure outcomes overzealously.
Some tasks are harder and take longer to complete than others. Just because one of my developers is getting results right now and another isn’t doesn’t mean the first is working harder, or better, than the second one. I should try to place performance baseline and measure worker execution to detect who’s lagging behind so I could support them in every means possible and get them on track.
3. I should keep my commitments.
Trust is strengthened over time. So long as I deliver what I have promised, I could gain confidence from my people. Later, whatever task I request from them to work on, they will be eager to move heaven and earth just to complete them. A commitment I make to one person may not be important to me but could be very important to them.
4. I should treat my people decently.
I do have people who don’t think like I do, who don’t share my values, who are very different from me. Even then I need to work at achieving and maintaining a comfortable working relationship. The key is we may argue on how our goal can be hit but we will be working together no matter what and hit it.
5. I should remain approachable and a good listener.
Even my best worker will need my help from time to time. There are other places they can go for help but as long as they’re in my office I will make myself available and do my best to ensure that my people feel free to turn to me with any questions or concern.
6. I should establish reasonable policies, communicate them clearly, and stick to them.
It would be impossible to anticipate every possible conflict but having a set of simple and rational guidelines will go a long way toward diffusing and avoiding conflicts. I will make sure everyone knows these rules ahead of time and enforce them consistently.
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