Managing a Team

We had a very nice discussion on the last 2 days of the CBE module.

At some point, Paul shared with us, how he never solved a problem for his employees, and that as asks them to provide solutions to the problems and then discuss these solutions with thier manager (Paul), and finally choose one of these solutions.

I think what Paul said was really nice, it made me think of this approach in many ways.

I belive that this approach is very nice, some of the reasons of why I think this approach is nice is because:

• It encourages thinking from employees. Sometimes people forget that they have a mind to use, it's not thier fault in some cases, sometimes it's just because they are too used to doing the same thing over and over, and once they face a problem they run to someone to help them, which is bad!
• Giving this feeling to the employees that they are helping the organization to solve problems and also gives them the feeling that they are contributing somehow.
• Giving the idea to the employees that the Manager is not a shoulder to cry on :).
• More time for the Manager to think and plan for the feature instead of dealing with dialy routines and problems.

In the Quality Management Administration which I work at, we have a great Director General. He have a lot of impressive plans, he always put the administration's work infront of him. He spends too much time in the administration even though he doesn't have to.

Sadly, because he deals too much with dialy problems and routine issues, he wastes too much time on this, and he then spends more time after we are all gone home, to work on planinng and strategies.

Since i am close to him in Work (Going to meetings together), and outside the Work (Relative), I always discuss this with him and asks him to find someone who deals with employees problems and routines for him to be free for the other big issues. He finally found someone to deal with these issues and started having a break and more time to spend with family without the usual headache, and I belive he is very happy now!

I think we as employees, who haven't yet made it to the top of the department or administration, should know about that. Those people are human, they have families and they are not free all the time for your small concerns, even though most of them will welcome you, but you shouldn't use that too much! Try to solve your problems, try to think and think again, and find solutions by yourself!

Now, about the approach that Paul used when he was a Manager of some department, I think I personaly like this approach, and I will definitely try to use it in the future, when I get back to the administration and the people that works with me.

: 01 Nov 2008 00:40 |  Tags: Mbe |  Comments (0) |  Report a problem