11 Management Sins That You Should Avoid von Schuster, Klaus (eBook)

11 Management Sins That You Should Avoid

Work Yourself to Death!

"Everything great in the world came into being because someone did more than they had to."

Hermann Gmeiner, Founder of SOS Kinderdörfer
Every (Good) Manager Works too Much

If it's a sin to work too much, then it's a sin that we're all committing together. But is it really a sin? "I feel like I have to work 24/7 just to get my regular work out of the way." I hear this a lot from most (good) managers. But what's wrong with that? At the end of the day it's our job to work (too much). That's what we're paid for. So why should it be considered bad?

It's not a sin to work too much - if it's the "right" work.

Let me start off with a "bad" example. My own "sin". I had just been promoted to divisional head and I was excited. Euphoric even. The motivation was palpable. In my acceptance speech I said what probably every leader says to their employees at this point. "My door is always open!"

The first few weeks in my new position were filled with hard work, but I kept my promise. If someone suggested a meeting, I fought to make the time. It didn't take long before my calendar was bursting at the seams. What's more, I played agony aunt to every wearied soul that crawled into my office with a look of suffering on their face. You can probably imagine how I felt after a few weeks (and at what time I managed to do my "own" work - after normal working hours were over for everybody else, of course). Have you heard the one about the overworked manager? "A manager is standing in front of his door one evening when his little daughter opens it and says, 'Thanks, but we don't want any.'" I can assure you, I didn't think that joke was particularly amusing back then. Because I was the guy standing in front of the door in the evening. But I was lucky. I had my own, personal "ah ha" moment.
Are You Doing the Work of Your Employees?

Late one afternoon I stood in front of my office window, still brooding over a problem that one of my team members had related to me about half an hour previously. Restlessly, turning things over and over again in my mind, I stared out the window, not really noticing what was going on in the world outside. I didn't really think about the busy crowd of people on the street below until it hit me like a bolt out of the blue.

Some of those people below were my employees. They suddenly came into focus, pouring out of the building, laughing and swapping jokes. As they happily returned to their after-work lives, I was standing up here dancing alone with a problem that they had shoved into my arms before leaving. Nota bene, their problem...

The kids were on their way home from school but the teacher had to stay late?

The boss spends his day doing the work of his employees, then stays late to do his own work at night? Another important question struck me: If I'm doing the work of my employees, what are they doing with their time? Leaving, obviously, at 5:00pm on the dot. You could have knocked me over with a feather.

It's a deadly sin if you work too much because you are doing the work of others!

The worst thing for me was how disappointed I felt. Up until then I had thought of us as a team. Now I could just imagine how my employees were thinking: "Man, I've still got to get this done! I haven't got time for it, I'll delegate it to the boss. He'll know how to get it done fast!"

I was pretty glad that it was late and no one else was in the building. I didn't want anyone to be on the receiving end of my suddenly burning anger. I really felt like gi