Tue, Aug 26, 2008

We asked a question of a Global business leader, and although they preferred to remain anonymous, they imparted some great advice in the area of Human Capital Management. The question asked was, “As an operations executive, what is the most important lesson that you have learned about management?”

Their response:

“Management in its truest and most effective form, is having a clear direction that supports your external customers and what they consider to be valuable. Everyone should be thinking and acting in a way that supports the paying customer, not just the internal partner. Assuming that you have put the right people in the right roles throughout the organization, and have enabled effective information sharing and collaboration to support that, you usually end up on the right path.

The effective manager provides his people with the right environment, tools and support that they need to achieve their objectives. A great manager is going to have to make less decisions if they have done this properly. Typically the business outcomes will be more positive if the people making the decisions have the right environment, the intelligence and automonomy to make the right choices.

Another part of managing successfully, is making sure that the people that report to you are always evaluating their decisions by asking questions that clarify if they are truly in alignment with the desired business outcomes. People can have clouded views of where they are at. It's human nature. For that reason, if someone that you're managing does not appear to be heading in the right direction, ask them questions that go to the root of the desired business outcome and have them articulate their reasoning, and the implications of their choices. But do it with an open mind. Often times, those people may understand something at a level that makes them more effective at making the right choices. Then again, inexperienced managers often need guidance to get them on the right path to success.”

                                                                         - Anonymous Executive Vice President