There is 𝐞𝐱𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐥𝐲 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐫 to all management questions.
Here is a failure pattern that I noticed.
I see it more in managers with experience than in new managers. I see it in managers that I coach in their work. I see it in managers that I coach in their interview preparation.
It builds up over time and goes something like this. They observe how their role models handle some situations. They look back at how they behaved and what happened afterwards. They pattern-match. They built their own management style.
💫When they delegate, they explain the problem in great detail but say nothing about the solution. That is up to the other person to figure out.
👉Or, they point them in the general direction and then hold frequent coaching sessions.
🔍It might be that in their field they noticed that being very hands-on when delegating works best. People may say that they are micro-managing, but they’ve seen what actually works.
These approaches are all correct and incorrect at the same time.
What happened here?
With experience, we pattern-match. We build mental models of what works well and what doesn’t. This often serves us well, and our confidence in the validity of the model goes up.
This confidence prevents us from noticing when the model does 𝐧𝐨𝐭 work well.
There is an inherent bias in the situations that we experience. Part of that is that we start managing one team, and not several. Part of it is the lack of variety of work-cultures. And part of it is that some events are common, some are uncommon, and some are rare. We over-index on some events.
Unless we stop to refine and hone our mental-model of management, we will fail in new situations.
Here is a concrete example.
There is no one right way of how to delegate. Each of the approaches I shared before are valid, for 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐮𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬.
With enough diverse experience, our mental models will be more flexible. We can learn from our own experience, that of peers, and from the industry as a whole.
As an example, we can use Situational Leadership™️ or Task-Relevant-Maturity (TRM) to guide how we delegate. These frameworks help us 𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐨𝐫 our leadership to the coupling between the specific individual and the specific task.
If you were to ask me to fold and Origami model, you could just send me on my way and I will report back. If you were to ask me to record a friend performing, I would benefit from a more involved leader.
So what can you do?
- Identify your implicit assumptions. Challenge them. Are they true? In what situations?
- Join a group of peers. You can set this up in your company or search your local market. You can also join the Management Deltas community for a more diverse group of motivated peers.
- Find a coach and mentor. Ask around in your network. Search online. For interview-oriented coaching, I work with and highly recommend Hello Interview.
So what is the correct answer to all management questions?
"It Depends."