Don’t ya just know? Seriously, don’t ya just know when it happens? Really, it is about that moment when you realize the “it” or “thing” is it or the thing. It is when you know that that “it” or “thing” is ready to be managed. Consider this. You are a manager of a team of five. You are all engaged in a meeting of sorts. You are sharing the next steps, the proposed “what we have to do next to make this thing happen.” You are speaking and then you stop and look at your team. At a point you immediately realize “they do not get it”. What do you do? What makes sense? What are you feeling in your gut? Our management life is filled with those moments. They challenge us to move left or right. They make us check…”what” exactly.
My first day of management was a mist. It was a fog of what I thought should happen. I was good on the job part. The job and the particulars were easy. It was when I had to look another human being in the eye and say, umm “Do this, cuz I said so (?)”. Then there were those moments in the day which followed when I thought “Crap” or “Yep” or “Huh?”
Despite my shortcomings (of which there are many), I realized I had not figured it out, or that I had the faintest idea when my team needed direction, or hitting ‘send’ on that one email would be a very bad decision. I was smart enough to know to do that or not to do that or to trust in that. Sometimes our decisions as managers are wrapped in a moment. They are based in something other than fact. It is a reaction to something with little to no information. It can make sense at that exact moment but maybe in no other time frame. Context is everything, right? Am I making you go cross-eyed? I am ultimately speaking about your gut, your instinct. When street-smart meets book-smart. It is when this feels right overcomes I know this. Do you get the distinction?
Growing up, something stuck. I remarkably remember when I was rushing in the kitchen (as I do in most things in my life). I dropped or spilled the dinner thing. While I do not remember the meal, I remember the moment. My dad said what has haunted me 30 plus years, “I knew that was going to happen”. As if by some crazy twist of fate or some Dune folding time and space moment, my father saw my fate. He actually foresaw the next four seconds of randomness. He was right. Seriously? Yep. By accident, by fate, by chance or just really good luck? Play poker much? When we meet our team and they expect us to manage them, they expect some type of leadership…by accident, by fate, by chance or just really good luck?
Let’s try to simplify this. Someone said “tag, you’re it” and you became manager of some sales reps. Chances are you were the lead sales rep – the leader of the pack. Then Skippy your best friend and Todd your most hated enemy came under your watch. You have to set some expectations to get “x’ done. Now they are looking back at you, what does your gut say? Simplify…right. When you take tasks and objectives and then add people, your management job gets really complicated. I wish it could be easier. Sorry. People are messy. They are flawed. They make mistakes. They try so hard and sometimes win and sometimes come up short. God bless them. They do not wake up wanting to fail! They need you, as manager, to trust they are worth a little bit of grace. What does your gut say?
OK, you have a team of five and you have to implement two new standards. Right now, do you or do you not know how they will respond before anything happens? Sometimes your next step has nothing to do with product knowledge, that one webinar on operational “this, that or the other” or that regional manager conference call. You just know what to do. You are having a Dune moment. The spice mélange has made you acutely aware of action, reaction and then what needs to happen next. You know what needs to happen. Maybe it is a customer who three words into the exchange; you know precisely what needs to happen. Skippy is late, Todd had a great day yesterday and Mary is having boy problems. You know what needs to happen and it wasn’t on the “to-do” list. Where does this come from? I venture to suggest this…
Management is not a formula. It sometimes just happens – be aware when it does.
Allow your intuition to work. Do not force a mindset, allow one to take shape.
Today happened and tomorrow has yet to happen. So how does your perspective and choices matter now?
Trust in yourself. Trust in making mistakes. Trust in being successful. Trust that you mattered yesterday, you matter today and you will still matter tomorrow.
Sometimes the answer is not obvious. Sometimes we need to ask a few questions. The boss needs to clarify a few things. And sometimes we know the answer. It is in our gut. While it may not be the best answer, it may very well be the best answer at that moment. I do not think we have embraced the inner voice enough as managers. I believe we have limited ourselves by the types of training which creates a bit of a “well, they said do this.” What causes this? Is it that we are more aware of the competitiveness of a selling environment whereby risk-taking is subject to scrutiny?
Here’s a Star Trek moment. How about when Dr. McCoy says “damn your green blood” as if to throw a fist up at logic or at least to suggest a strict adherence to logic has it faults? I love how that applies to managing and leading others. People are illogical, life is unscripted and sometimes the objective or standards don’t fit exactly. Skippy is late, Todd had a great day yesterday and Mary is having boy problems – “I knew that was going to happen”.
Cheers