A People Manager vs. Managing People

 

Years ago, one of my first editorial overseers gave me two bits of sage advice that I have never forgotten to this day. One, he said, always do your homework on a story assignment to ensure you know what you’re writing about. Two, if you ever rise to a managerial position remember it’s not always about direct authority – it’s also about being part psychologist, part parent and part colleague.

Nearly four decades later I have not seen nor experienced anything that would refute either.

I calculated during my ongoing hitch in the American workforce, I have reported to roughly 40 different managers including 18 of them at the same company – let me repeat that for emphasis – eighteen!

So much for consistency. Is it any wonder why the corporate cartoon parody “Dilbert” is still going strong after 32 years and syndicated in some 2,000 newspapers?

And throughout it all I can say that most of them left me with something that incrementally burnished my management skills. Like I said “most.” There were at last count some seven past supervisors that I learned exactly nothing from. Needless to say, none of them remained my direct report for very long. In fact, when I handed in my resignation letter, my last manager who lent new meaning to the term “useless corporate bloat” his idea of an enticing counteroffer was “I can’t give you any more money to stay,” If there was ever a clarion to leave, this was literally a foghorn two feet away from my eardrum.

These past management vignettes come at a time when each day another CPA firm owner or partner bemoans about his or her hamster wheel efforts to mine talent. Particularly young talent. Guess what? It’s a problem some 50,000 or so other firms have as well. But conversely, I also advise that retention is not always about salary and perks but also about management style.

One of the most interesting staff retention conversations I ever had with a managing partner revolved about his “imaginary leash” as he put it. “It may sound strange, but I give them the opportunity to fail. Because that’s the way they will learn in the future.”

As you might have guessed turnover was not one of his firm’s bigger problems.

One of the recommendations we make to seller clients is to ask themselves three questions when sizing up a potential merger partner: What’s it like to be a client here, what’s it like to be a partner here and perhaps most importantly, what’s it like to be a staff member here? If there’s a bad feeling about the answer to any of the three that’s a direct reflection of the management philosophy and practice. So, walk away. Quickly.

If nothing else, experience with 40 direct reports taught me that.