Anybody who’s ever had a bad manager, knows it’s true that your manager counts.

Keeping up with ideas — Do you?
I like to keep up with ideas in the business world (ex-IBM’er) as well as in the fashion world (ex-multi-store owner.) On the latter, I recommend Nathan Branch’s blog for a weekly rundown of all that matters. Also the Sartorialist and Bill Cunningham for on the street photos.

I sort of know a little (or a lot) about a lot (or little) — not particularly a master of any of it, just aware and interested across the board in a multitude of issues including books of all sorts.

Anyway, I have a stack of RL books to read (this isn’t counting the ones on Kindle) and decided to begin three last night. I hit the jackpot with each of them. My son had given me one to read; the others I picked up at the library book sale. I just love finding good reads!

First, break all the rules
This title and subtitle is one of the longest I’ve ever seen, but I had to laugh at the main title because I am a closet-rebel or perhaps a not-so-closet-rebel. Sometimes that is a good thing, and sometimes that is a bad thing. I have been known to be called a flower child (meant and taken as a good thing.) I wonder which my friends would say about me being a closet-rebel, if I hadn’t told them.

Rules are meant to be broken — at least some of them — or we’d never have any progress.

Here’s the full title: First, Break All the Rules: What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently. And the rest: based on in-depth interviews by the gallup organization of over 80,000 managers in over 400 countries — the largest study of its kind ever undertaken. The book is (c) 1999 so I don’t know how much might have changed. Likely not much, unless some of the successful companies in the book have gone under.

I’m only on page 36, but so far I highly recommend the book. It is given 4.5 stars by 274 Amazon readers. ( Full disclosure: 14 gave it 1*; 11 gave it 2*; 13 gave it 3*)

The authors summarize important points in retaining key employees. If your employees can answer the following questions affirmatively, you are in better shape than if they do not:

1. Do I know what is expected of me at work?
2. Do I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right?
3. At work, do I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day?
4. In the last seven days, have I received recognition or praise for good work?
5. Does my supervisor, or someone at work, seem to care about me as a person?
6. Is there someone at work who encourages my development?
7. At work, do my opinions seem to count?
8. Does the mission/purpose of my company make me feel like my work is important?
9. Are my co-workers committed to doing quality work?
10. Do I have a best friend at work?
11. In the last six months, have I talked with someone about my progress?
12. At work, have I had the opportunities to learn and grow? (p 28)

Of the 12, the 6 that are more key to employee retention are these:

1. Do I know what is expected of me at work?
2. Do I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right?
3. Do I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day?
4. Does my supervisor, or someone at work, seem to care about me as a person?
5. Is there someone at work who encourages my development?
6. At work, do my opinions seem to count? …

Even more than the rest, these five questions are most directly influenced by the employee’s immediate manager. … It tells us that people leave managers, not companies. … If you have a turnover problem, look first to your managers. (p 33)

Not surprisingly,

managers trump companies (p 34)

Immediate management
I’m here to tell you that I know of several people who left companies because of their immediate manager. They just didn’t want to work in that atmosphere any longer.

The stories told in the book, so far, hold my interest. I always read with a critical eye. Stats can be used to prove anything, especially if one is trying only to prove a given point vs. looking for new information. Issues might have more complexity in today’s economic times. Or, conversely, it might mean employees might put up with more because there are seemingly less options.

One story is told of a woman who was leaving American Express to join another company. 13 had been in her immediate group; all of them had already left their manager, except for her, and she was leaving too.

Surely that should say something.

It isn’t easy being management.
I have been on both sides of management — under an incompetent manager (I felt) and also as a manager. I remember letting an employee go. She was very young (I was too) and only wanted to help younger customers. She didn’t really have any interest in the older customers or their needs. She would have been a fine employee where the dynamics of the customers were a better fit. I often wonder whether she stayed in the industry or not — and if I could have brought her along better. I think it was a matter of cutting our losses (both of ours) quickly.

Here’s what I think
Work with what your employees have — use their strengths. It is very difficult to instill something that isn’t already there.

Give them as much autonomy as you can — give them the freedom to use their strengths. It’s why you presumably hired them in the first place.

Do I have a best friend at work?
I thought this question was very interesting. There is some discussion over the need to put the word best in the sentence — not just a friend, but a best friend.

So, is this indicative only of a friendly atmosphere, one in which friendships are fostered — or where one serendipitously happens? Or does friendly indicate knowing about each other lives and that we matter vs. everything we do being looked at askance?

I know people who have left jobs because there was no friendship — and I know of others who stayed at jobs (and even found mentors) because of friendships. I know a woman who stayed with her boss, moving into other areas of the company when he did, asking him to ask for her (and he did) knowing he would promote her (and he did.) Both of them are still working well together.

Leaving a company is less of an option when the work atmosphere has friendships. And if you are eligible for retirement, why would you necessarily leave to double dip, when fellow workers like and appreciate you…

What do you think?
Have you read this book? Have you had good, bad, or indifferent managers? How has it affected your work or whether you stayed or went?

Karin
www.savvythinker.com

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Book Review, Business, Non-fiction