The good manager – The bad manager

Yesterday, while commenting Peter Drucker’s book– The Effective Manager - with a friend of mine the topic who is a good manager and who is a bad manager.   The conversation evolved into an interesting direction and I decided to share the story with you.
 
The good manager – the bad manager
 
The first question that arose was:
- Good for whom?
Good for subordinates or good for bosses?  Obviously, because of different criteria of employees and management the same manager will get contradictory assessments.
 
For example, a good manager from staff’s point of view would be one that cares and is pretty much concerned about their problems, understandis difficulties and always assists them in completing the hardest part of their duties, provides them a good income and motivates them.  Few would like he to be rigorous, to set high goals, never to accept "no" and "it’s very difficult" as a response, to be uncompromising in goals pursuit.  But, even loved by his subordinates, such a manager would not achieve high results. Its purpose is the welfare of people rather than economic results. He will probably be replaced by the management due to "failure to meet the targets".
 
If the results are manager’s only priority, he will probably be a good manager in the eyes of the management but his subordinates will quit. A general without an army, is no general.
 
Recently I came across articles about balance. And none of them tells me how to calculate it, where exactly is that balance. I am tempted to invite the authors to visit my company and state "Right here is the balance, made up actions 1,2 and 3 and you will achieve the balance.  But I am afraid I would not live that long to see this happens.
 
The company is an economic enterprise that can not exist in the long term, if there are not positive financial results. All employees and managers upon entering the company agree to pursue the corporate goals and to achieve the required results. Therefore, the results are the priority. But they can only be achieved through people.
 
 
With my friend we came to the conclusion that the question of the good manager - bad manager should be replaced with:
The manager who achieves high results for a long time
 
 
Such managers - that achieve high performance for an extended period of time - are neededin every company, and doesn’t matter how they will be qualified - good or bad managers. Objective assessment in the light of a company long term existence does not include categories as good or bad. Objective evaluation categories are “high performers” or “bad performers”.
 
The high performance managers:
do not face fluctuation – but selection of the proper staff;
do not squee the staff – but set the optimal workload;
do not provide high or low wages - but optimum;
do not practice high or low motivation – but create the good team (employees-manager).
 
And let everyone has the happiness to become or work for such a Manager!

Unfortunately, here my friend changed the topic of our talk to - the unrealistic self-assessments due to full hegemony of feelings over reason.
 

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