Greetings from Sacramento.
From the Ask Tom mailbag –
Question:
What do you feel are truly the most effective skills that I need to think about as a new manager?
Response:
Hiring and firing, top of the list. The most important skill for any manager is the ability to select the right team members. This makes all other management skills seem like a walk in the park.
The manager who selects the wrong team members will forever spend time trying to fix the problems that come from hiring mis-steps. And that time spent trying to motivate, coach and correct behavior will be frustrating, life will be miserable.
Take a sports team and put them up against any other team. To pick the team who will win the game, you only have to know the answer to one simple question.
Who is on the team?
Pick the right players and your life as a manager will be wonderful. Hiring and firing, top of the list.
My apologies to Michael Cardus for immediately using a sports analogy after his post yesterday, Sports Teams are not Work Teams. Quite good. Take a look.
Tom, that is funny. I was reading your post and enjoying it until I saw your sports team reference.
I agree that the right players make the team, along with the structure and system for getting work done. For example you can have a team of all-stars and a horrible play book.
Choosing the right team members, plus having the authority to de-select based on evidence and effectiveness of their work, is necessary. This is a skill that managers really need to master.
Mike, You are correct, a great team in a dysfunctional system will yield poor results. -TF