You know all those articles which tell you the importance of learning to say “No”. How liberating it is, how you suddenly regain control of your life and establish a work life balance. Well what if you’re the person they suddenly start saying no to? As a manager I don’t want people to say no. My job after all is to get people to do what needs to be done Do you remember when the management gurus used to bang on about empowerment? We were told that we would get a lot more out of staff if we empowered them. We were advised that service user would attain new unheard of levels of satisfaction if we empower them. Why were we deciding what was best for people, let them decide for themselves.Like holding a referendum really , ok until they make the wrong decision. Before austerity bit and we all became obsessed with the budget we were told that decision making could be improved and streamlined if we made it closer to the front line. In other words if we delegated. As a manager I would delegate and say all I expect is that having made a decision you can explain the thinking behind it. This of course worked very well when their thinking was like mine but as I tried to be more radical in my delegation I found that not only did everyone not think like me some people’s idea “thinking” wasn’t the same as mine! How managers are expected to manage changes according to the circumstances and fashion, like child rearing practices. And like parenting you learn as you go along, most people don’t follow the manuals, most people think their own experience could be improved upon, and most people think it more stressful and difficult than they imagined. Blair Mcpherson www.blairmcpherson.co.uk
