What A Good Manager REALLY Does

It is not that obvious, what a manager does. Often my two daughters are asking me about details of what I do. Sometimes it comes down to the question, wheater I am the boss, and I answer with “yes” and “no”. Yes, because I am the boss of a team, and no, because I also have a boss. Even if I would the THE boss, I am not Mr. Big Boss, as of then I have customers and banks telling me what to do, to say the least.

Understanding the job in terms of the hierarchical level with an organization seems like a simple one that even kids understand. Family, school and their circle of friends already have an organizational setup.

But my kids are not alone in asking what a manager is. That questions has been ansered more than 200 Million times. I am not sure if the seach results of the automatic search enginee really answer the question, as within the first hundret links Mr. Drucker was never mentioned.  Asking for “what a manager does” , 200 Million results are indicated with similar results. So what a manager DOES versa what a manager IS might not be relevant. Doing versa Being is an interesting subject. For a better understanding of what a manager is, let’s look at the Doing side of things. 

 

 

 

Drucker attributes the below structure to Effective Executives. But I think it goes for all Managers. If they manage and not just administer.

I promotes some of my team members recenctly into a management role. Based upon their potentential, competencies and aspirations. They could have stayed in their professional role, but the way the salary-bands are defined would put them against a ceiling quickly. Also, as CBS Interactive says, middle managers matter, despite the run for lean organizations.

But becomming a manager requires coaching to get into this. From expert into a manager. How long does this take? And would I be a good role-model? (Let´s assume yes, at least to some degree, otherwise it would not make sense I guess).

I had the same in my life, years ago, and to be honest, it was not easy. I had to let go my expert knowledge and get into the unknown. Leaving the comfort zone big time. Not that I ever want to go back, but it takes a while to adopt to the fluidum of management. But I had some good mentors and people I could learn from. So now it is my turn. I need to help them to understand what managers are, and what they do. The above is a good illustration – but what does this really mean in terms of “things a manager does”.

Answers to Non-Asked Questions