Page 101 - Benjamin Franklin\'s The Way to Wealth: A 52 brilliant ideas interpretation - PDFDrive.com
P. 101
46 MANAGING OTHERS
The way to wealth is rarely a solitary path and how well you work
with your fellow travellers is going to be a large part of whether you
succeed or fail. Failure to manage those who work for you is an
expensive business—or as Franklin would have it ‘not to oversee
workmen is to leave them your purse open’.
Back in Franklin’s day the idea of overseeing probably had a more literal
sense of keeping an eye on workmen to ensure that they didn’t slack off
and that they did do the task as required.
DEFINING IDEA…
In order that people may be happy in their work, these three things
are needed: They must be fit for it. They must not do too much of it.
And they must have a sense of success in it.
~ JOHN RUSKIN
For the modern manager, the risks of slacking off or open dishonesty, while
still there, are probably lower than the far more common and insidious risk
of teams failing to perform to their potential due to inadequate coaching.
Overseeing in the modern environment isn’t about making staff nervous by
watching them like a hawk, it’s about being a quality team leader. For that
there are a number of rules to bear in mind.
• The first step in super-supervision is being absolutely clear about what the goal of the project is and what
must be done on the way.
• The second is to ensure that your staff fully understand that. It’s very easy to overlook the fact that just
because someone is good at what they do, doesn’t mean they know what they’re doing on this job. And,
conversely, just because someone doesn’t know what they’re doing on this project doesn’t mean they’re
not good at what they do.
• Don’t just consider the short-term goals—discuss the ultimate outcomes so that those working for you
can see your expectations and your point of view. If you share the same understanding of the ultimate
outcome, rather than just a job description of the task at hand, you are more likely to arrive at the same
goal.
• Make sure you are asking the right people to do the job and make your needs and expectations as clear as
possible. Get people to explain back to you what needs to be done and how it has to happen to ensure
they’ve really got it.
