Misc. Ramblings

There are different management styles. Each style is neither good nor bad in all situations. In fact, a manager that does extremely well in one situation may fail miserably in another.

The keys then, are three-fold. You have to be aware of who you are (what are your strong/weak points), what is the context of the situation (which management tools would work best), and most importantly, be flexible enough and knowledgeable enough to employ these tools with precision.

Today, I'm going to talk about one type of manager and how the context is critical in determining how successful he or she will be.

So, some managers learn how to be managers through on-the-job-training. There is much to said for this kind of manager. They tend to have a deep understanding of the job because they've had to live it. That is, they've had to make decisions without having a theoretical context with which to examine the situation from different perspectives and then make a decision based on the totality of views.

This type of manager can make quick decisions without being hamstrung by competing views.

Hence, the tool these managers have is the ability to make quick decisions. The downside is they are rarely reflective. That is, they do things, many times, by rote or by what has worked in the past or even by what some would call blind faith. This problem was crystallized by Mark Twains apt phrase; "To a man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail."

Don't get me wrong, the problem is not in using the hammer, rather the problem is in not realizing that it isn't the best tool to use in all situations. Sometimes this is because the manager is not aware of other tools. Sometimes the manager is aware of other tools but the manager is not adept at utilizing them.

Let me give you a real-life example. One manager I know of, I'll call him Brian, works in an environment in which managers don't take responsibility for decisions that don't work but always crow about how they are such superb managers when they do. When things don't work out, Brian always blame his staff. It was staff that made the error, not him. It was staff that gave him incorrect information. It was staff that didn't tell him what he needed to know. Brian's tool is to avoid personal responsibility.

Even if this is true (that staff is somehow at fault), which it isn't, it isn't a sign of a good manager to blame others for their decisions and not take personal responsibility for being the decision maker.

Which brings me to this 11 page New York Times article on President Bush entitle "Without a Doubt".

The article's main thesis is that President Bush operates on faith rather than facts. That he is a true believer and what he believes is that he is on a mission from God. Literally. Any facts to the contrary simply denote your lack of faith and will result in your being labeled an unbeliever and a dupe of Satan.

As I said at the beginning, there is no one way of management that is always right. And at times, President Bush's style of management may be effective. But at other times, this type of management can lead a country to its doom. In November, choose wisely.