Many restaurants claim the serve Italian food. Few actually do.
Many managers claim they give freedom to their employees. Few actually do.
Many start-up claim they are out to change the world. Few actually do.
Many people claim they are the best in their field. Few actually are.
Many influencers claim they have influence over their audience. Few actually do.
As it turns out, the more you claim, the less you do.
What you do at the top will cascade to the rest of your organisation.
It’s not what you say. Not what you think. It’s not your ideas or your intentions. It’s not your principles or your mission statement.
It’s what you do in the LT meeting and in the board room.
Because you are in control.
P.S.: this is valid even for very small organisations. A family, for example.
Managing projects is easy, managing people is difficult.
And that’s not because projects always succeed or achieve what they were supposed to achieve, but because they are made of tasks, timelines, deadlines, deliverables, priorities. All things that, one way or the other, even in the most difficult circumstances, are defined and controllable.
People are not.
People have no limit and they cannot be controlled. They have values, feelings, triggers. They establish relationships and break them. They are motivated and demotivated. They need to talk and to be listened to. They want to progress, take on new challenges, and they panic in the face of change.
We know how people are, because we are people too. And that’s what scares us and makes managing people so difficult.
Exactly the reason why, in a situation of crisis or uncertainty, most management resorts to assigning more tasks, asking for more visibility, setting stricter deadlines, and cracking down on inefficiencies.
Because managing projects is easy, while managing people is difficult.
The lack of candor and openness in most workplaces is one of the main demotivators for employees.
If you work at a place where everybody agrees during a meeting, but then implementing what was decided is a lengthy and painful process, that’s probably because people don’t feel like they are free to speak up or because they don’t want to. One way or the other, the environment gets quickly very toxic, frustration mounts, and what’s left is an ocean of indifference and inefficiency.
Whether you win or you lose, you need to be able to do two things.
First, appreciate your performance – which means giving an appropriate value to your role. Because whether you win or you lose this time, the outcome of the next challenge will be based on how well you understand what went well and what did not go as well.
Second, extend a hand to your opponent – no matter if it’s a person or a situation. Because whether you win or you lose this time, you ought to be able to recognize that some things are out of your control and deserve your unconditional respect.
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