I’m not a Manager at heart

So apparently management is not my game… it took me almost 11 months to find out! It’s a very dull business… there’s allot of must do that don’t fit my personality and I keep fearing becoming “ That Manager” which I need to be sometimes… Managing people is not fun at all, it’s very demanding, I’ve learnt allot … really much… but while I built my educational CV to fit the position of a manager specially with my recently granted MBA, PMP and my old rusty MIS degree… I now decide that’s not my job! I think I’ll fly into another domain very soon…. Probably back to theatre….
Though Some part of management can be allot of fun, when you need to be creative and work on strategy! And think creatively to create solutions…. Empowering some staff can be so self rewarding … yet not being able to motivate some of them can become frustrating….
Bottom line , I’m sure wasn’t born to be a manager…. Managers should be mean creatures who don’t care what others feel, they want the job done, they want efficiency, regardless of intelligence or creativity… So before I create the right closure and transition out of my management business, I need to make sure I pass on the know how which I learnt for those who seek to be managers….

My most important lessons:

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  Follow your gut feeling, follow your heart, this is my methodology in life in general but in management its core as well. When you feel a person is not honest, is not performing, is not straight forward… trust your gut feeling .
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  Sometimes it’s not about you, it’s about characters. Some people are just lazy and they are not responsible, and no matter how many methods you follow to motivate them , it doesn’t work! They keep being the lazy people who call in sick in the most urgent timing. No matter what Douglas McGregor said, theory X does exist for some people. And once you identify those in your team… fire them…
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  When you give an employee a written warning, don’t be nice, write the honest reason of the warning, that will save you allot of legal complications later if you decide to fire him. A warning must state actual reason for warning in as honest as blunt as possible. If he was rude enough to deserve a warning don’t feel sorry and try to word it nicely. It’s a warning, it shouldn’t be nice or considerate!!
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  Once you walk into a place as a new manager, don’t try to learn people’s way of doing things. You’re in charge, teach them your way of doing things! There’s a difference between living the culture of the place and trying to manage work the way the team is used to from previous management. Keep in mind if the old management was that good , you wouldn’t have came here. Walk into the place and create your new rules and communicate them…
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  When outsourcing to an outside company any consultancy work , make sure you follow all what you studied in the procurement chapter of the PM! Its not a joke! No matter how good the company’s reputation is , good reputation of work doesn’t guarantee professionalism of any sort! putting penalty on delays is a must for you to be on the safe side. Tendency to delay delivery is very common specially for well known companies!! Since they are overwhelmed! Study the contract very well, and put your terms in it, not just penalty for delay but for unsatisfactory results or any expectations your have.
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  Don’t be understanding or nice when a major value related to your sense of work ethics is being undervalued whether from upper management or team. That’s very sensitive and important…. If you decide to ignore it, you are demotivating yourself.
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  Hire for attitude and train for skills…. You don’t always need skilled people around you. You just need some positive attitude with a high sense of initiative. A person who is always ready to learn is much better than the most highly skilled person who doesn’t like to receive feedback on work.
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  No one will motivate you, everyone will frustrate you! Yet you should keep creating stepping stones o out of stumbling blocks… and get challenged and motivated… because if you are down… the whole team is down and you lost the game…. It must stay your cause, they must keep feeling your passion… it gives them the drive…
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  Being young means wanting people to admire you and love you. Being a manger means being hated! It’s a very hard combination to make…. I kept on compromising being professional for the sake of being admired and loved… now I believe the last thing anyone would want to do is friends inside the office… no need for that, just get the work done and communicate your beliefs professionally…. Because no matter how nice you are, if at one point you were honest enough to communicate your discomfort towards anything related to people’s work & achievements you will be hated on the spot! So why build fake admiration and love…. Be the mean boss, let them admire you for your creative work ideas… and get inspired by your passion… but never try to win anyone’s heart…

I hope that keeps people excited to become managers excited....

What's a manager's worst frustration?

Nothing is as frustrating as finding a team or a team member that doestn belong to the organization.... doesnt' feel any sort of loyality or belief in the vision of the organization they work in.... this can litrally frustrate a manager..... reminding people of the vision continously is not enough if they are not passionately involved in it.... its useles....
part of the problem is probably that people in this country lack a sense of belonging not just to their work but to their countries, families.... and the list goes on and on....
loyality is rated very low.... everyone is overthere trying to apply to Canada for Immegration or US for green card... and very few carry the dream of this country's future in their hearts and minds.... and the case is similiar in jobs... some people look for jobs, not careers... and they keep jumping to a better offer.... how do you attract a team that is interested in the vision? how do you create more loyality in the team you have? how does it stop being a job and becomes a message you want to cross with complete dedication and ownership? i dont really know....

Rule # one: He's NObody

I've been at the office for few months and I really need to manage the flow of work, yet I don’t want people to think I'm being bossy, or interfering in their comfort zone, being younger than the team, made them irritated at the mere fact of seeing me…I was trying to take my role, yet doing my best to do it with the least interference… trying to observe if things would flow without me getting into it…. And it didn’t really work out well for everybody, for some it went well… yet needed some "suggestions" here and there… anyway… It was time to really meet him and talk to him about ALL the things that have been falling apart or not done the way it should be… and he does get on my nerves with the way he talks, I think he's rude and I don't like his attitude problem… but I got this wonderful advice from a dear friend of mine, to just imagine that he's nobody! so time comes to meet…. I sit in front of him, thinking " He's nobody, He's nobody"! he starts talking and talking… apparently he has allot to say… he's frustrated… sick of his job, which he's been in for more than 4 years… tired of the whole team… not motivated… and he's blaming it all on himself…but says that started when I came!!! to actually make me say "No its my fault!" which I don’t think is true… he talks and talks… and I'm still thinking he's nobody! I said it enough times inside my head to actually believe it… for a second I felt like the chair in front of me was actually empty and I smiled…. And then the real image emerged the second I heard his voice a bit louder saying " It's not funny, I'm almost depressed from work.!" It really isn't funny, I myself felt like him at one point in my life, and that's when I decided to resign and start a whole new life! That's what people do when they are bored and not motivated after FOUR years! They don’t just stay around to frustrate others and demotivate those who are motivated by coming late each morning and delaying major tasks that delays other team members work and the whole project…. So anyway… back to the honest one to one confrontation… I suddenly feel like he's actually somebody with a PROBLEM… and I'm the HEALER, who needs to listen and acts as if she CARES… so I try to ask questions to check what I can do better in the way I'm managing the team so that he can feel more involved, more motivated… etc… I don’t get answers… I suggest things and he agrees on almost every suggestion I suggested…… I'm in charge.. he's in a deep problem in his life and I'm trying to solve it…. It makes me feel so empowered… . Then its my time to rant about him…. And since it started with a very confronting conversation from his side… I want to say what I observed from him of bad attitude since I came to that office… I rant and rant about the bad attitude problem… the rude way of talking… and the respect that he lacks… then I talk work wise and the delays in work… and the late attendance and the carelessness… and I feel better that I got it out of my chest in a very honest way… and that he listened and for once was tolerant more than ever… for once he was very quiet… for once he was somebody with a mask of nobody where all the male ego becoming invisible to the human eye….

The Young Manager's first confession!! I'm A racist!!

I was hired a very young Manager, of a team I’m not sure all are very happy about it. I have to play the role of a manager 9 to 5 if not more… I end up frustrated, I need an outlet to talk about it, so that I stop frustrating my close friends with my very boring stories of the little human challenges I face in my every working day! My very small boring stories mean allot to me, they are part of a huge transformation in my life, my career and my understanding of people , systems and process and how each affect the other and integrate with the other. It’s about allot of human feelings and about how authority plays a role, and how the role plays authority. This blog is about me as a manager who is someone I’m getting to know… who is someone in the process of learning and surprise all the time. this blog is for me to reflect freely on my lessons learnt and who am I as a manager apart and as part of who I am as a human! Without having to say who I am really!
This blog is done with the intention of talking openly… without having to hide certain issues in the fear that someone who knows my name would recognize I’m talking about HIM and probably INSULTING him! yes I keep saying HIM because the probability of HIM being the reason of a problem is 90%... while the probability of HER being the reason of a problem or frustration is something as close as 10%! I’m racist already! That’s the first thing I knew about myself when I became a manager….