Devora Zack

Managing is the high-wire act of balancing
useful guidance and getting out of the way.

When in doubt, pour a higher proportion of letting-others-shine into your management protein shake.

A startling percentage of us dislike, even (shh!) hate managing. What is the source of this international travesty? Much managerial angst springs from two causes.

1. You pursue a career of interest. You turn out to be halfway decent at it, earning a promotion. Suddenly, you find yourself in the alarming, distressing quandary of Managing People. You have less time to do what stimulates you and more responsibility for motivating, leading, and prodding others.

2. Let’s not mince words. Managing others can be a real buzz kill. You gotta deal with all their… stuff. When did you wake up and suddenly become a therapist, mediator, and cruise director?

In a nutshell, we want to do what we consider our real work; managing gets in the way.

Management is not your passion; your real job is.

“Tell me and I’ll forget. Show me and I may remember.
Involve me and I’ll understand.”

“Tell me and I’ll forget. Show me and I may remember.
Involve me and I’ll understand.”

Recall seeing a “Save the ________!” ad and thinking, “Wow! That’s a really important cause! I’m going to make a donation.” If you don’t do it on the spot, chances are zip to nil you ever will. Here are a couple of reasons why.

1. We forget within forty-eight hours half of what we hear and learn.

2. We are most likely to convert intention into reality by taking action close to the point of inspiration.

In the real world, where staff meetings are held and paychecks are distributed every other week, terminology is irrelevant. What matters is how people are treated. They don’t care if you supervise, lead, or manage them. They care whether you’ve got their back, whether you are invested in their success, and whether you treat them as assets, liabilities, or competition.

But enough about me, let’s talk about you… What do you think of me?
—C. C. Bloom (Bette Midler’s character in Beaches, screenplay by Mary Agnes Donoghue)

The only indisputable, irrefutable, inarguable, brilliant, life-changing rule, doctrine, law, MANDATORY realize-it-or-regret-it foundation of being the best possible manager ever is:

… be you.