CIO Skills by Jorg

There are thousands of books about management. And I must admit that I’ve read quite a lot of them in the last years. I’ve always had a burning imperative to be a good manager that stands in front of his people. A manager that people can trust!

It has not always been easy, I must say. When reading about so many tactics, financials and numbers, human resources policies, etc,  it is sometimes easy to forget the most important part of being a manager; you’re the captain on your ship and the ship has to arrive at the port. Simple as that.

To achieve this goal, you’ll need a lot of people on the ship doing their tasks. No better example than a flight carrier, where thousands of people run around and everybody is doing what is expected from them. Different roles, different goals!

Your main task as manager should  be that everybody understands their own role and the goals that come with it. If everybody knows what to do, you don’t have to run around to tell everybody constantly what to do and to keep them busy.

The next task is to check if goals are being finished correctly. Two things can happen: It’s done right or it’s done wrong. Simple as that.

If someone has accomplished his goal in the right way, compliment him immediately and be specific on what he did right. If someone has failed to complete his goal, reprimand him and tell them how you (really) feel when it has happened and be specific on what he did wrong.

Don’t make the mistake that 80% of managers all make; don’t wait until it’s time for the yearly review of the employee to tell them what they did wrong in the last year. Tell people what’s wrong and especially good when it happens! This way they can learn and change.

What’s written above is the most important part of being a manager. You can be a manager who can make beautiful spreadsheet, present like the best and communicate like Steve Jobs. But if you fail to write down goals for each employee and check up on these goals, you already failed.

There you have it! You just saved thousands of dollars on books and courses. Now, go pay attention to your team!

Famous Trust Experiment

During my professional career, starting as a junior IT employee at Atos Origin until my business consultant work I’m doing now, one thing I’ve seen too little is trust. Somehow it seems that trust is something you’ll have to earn and which comes after years of hard work.

Because I work at a lot of different places for my consultancy work, I don’t have time to lose for building trust. I just GIVE trust. Some people find this strange. They come to me and tell me that I shouldn’t just trust employee X with this and that because he has done this and that in the past. The simple question I ask back is: And how do you want to change this person, if we don’t give him a change?

Two things can happen when you give trust to people: it works out or it doesn’t. If it works out, you’ll have the best supplier, most productive employee, most loyal customer. If it doesn’t work out, you will have to say goodbye.

Problem is that most people find it hard to say goodbye. And there is the trick; don’t make the road to long. You have to be clear that you give trust and what you expect back. For example: ask someone what their work is really about and what they are responsible for at work. They will have a small story to tell, but they don’t have any clear goals written down, which their manager knows about and agrees with.

If you give trust, it must be clear trust. Tell people what you expect of them and what they can expect from you. Write it down, so that you know and more important that the other person knows what you expect.

Two books that helped me a lot with building confidence to give clear trust are ‘The Speed of Trust’ and the ‘One Minute Manager’. Both really recommended reading!