Manager's Point of View

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Sample Manager Point of View
 

As a manager your role is to implement and manage the company's vision by getting results from your team within our culture. When you become a manager you effectively put yourself in the middle. If you look at our organizational chart you are literally in the middle of the position you report to and the positions that you manage. It can be a tricky position to navigate, especially if you haven't been there before. It's easy to feel as if you're getting pulled by both sides or that you're fighting between two sides that you are supposed to pull together. The good news is it doesn't have to be that way. Management can be a much easier and productive position if you have the right mindset.
 

What is a manager's point of view?

Take on the Business's Point of View: As a manager you're always going to be in the middle, but you have an anchor. With every decision, every question you have to answer, and action you take, you should always be thinking about the business's point of view. The one guiding question you should always use to refocus yourself, and to avoid taking sides is very simply, "What does the business need to reach its vision?" By bringing everything back to this simple question, you don't have to pick "sides" or feel like you're unsure what "side" you are on within the business. There is only one side, which is the business's side. As a manager you should always believe in the vision for this business and be committed to doing what you can to reach that vision.
 

Start at the End: As a manager you should always look to the end result. The result is your solution. Once you have your solution then you need to work backwards to move past any barriers. There are always several different ways to get the end result. There will be times when things go awry, but if you're focused on the result you can lead your team in the right direction even if you don't have the exact answer. Focusing on the end result frees you up and gives you the flexibility to adapt to anything that detracts you from the path. To start at the end, always ask yourself how a decision, issue, or any action you have to take will impact the end result. This will ensure that you're always headed in the right direction.
 

Be Willing to Challenge - As a manager, you are in the middle. You're in the middle of the upper management and your team. It's not always the most fun place to be, but it is exactly why you have to be willing to challenge. Those challenges might be regarding policies and procedures. They might be regarding mindsets or emotions. They might be challenging upper management and they might be challenging your team. Your position as a manager is to always look at the vision and figure out how to implement that vision regardless of where obstacles start. A couple things to remember:

• Take the business point of view. Your "side" isn't about what you want or think is right. It's not always what upper management wants or the team wants. It is always, "What does the business need to reach the vision?" 
• There are different ways to challenge different people. As a manager you have to know how to pull the most out of people and in many ways you are the negotiator. You're the person that has to get the best out of upper management and your team. This means you might have to take different tactics with different people based on their position and personality. 
• You must be prepared to listen and take criticism of your challenge. The moment you challenge something you also open yourself and your ideas up to criticism. If you take it personally the role of being a manager can be very difficult. Instead you must be willing to listen. If upper management or even your team has issues with your challenge then it's an opportunity to make it better. It doesn't mean it wasn't a good challenge or idea. It doesn't mean that it's not going to change. It just means there is more work to be done. 
• Sometimes you lose a challenge. You're not going to win them all. The key is in how you accept a loss. As a manager you can't play both sides. If the business makes a decision you have to look for ways to implement it. You can, and should, always challenge ideas you don't agree with, but that should be done with your manager, not with your team. Remember that agreeing is easy, but disagreeing takes more skill.
• Don't fall in love with ideas. Often times, true progress is stopped because someone is closely tied to exactly how something needs to be done. They fall in love with the idea of something and lose sight of the end result. As a manager things may not always be done exactly the way you would make decisions or exactly as you would complete the task. If the systems are being followed. If the result is being met. If it's moving you closer to the vision, then sometimes you need to be flexible. Let your own ideas change and encourage flexibility to reach the needed result.

 

It's also important to ensure that the emotion isn't taken personally and doesn't influence the end result. The emotion has to be put aside and the decision must be made from the point of view of the business, but sometimes that can't be done until the underlying emotions have been addressed. Ensure that the emotion is put aside by all parties before moving ahead.
 

Believe You can Influence Change. As a manager you will be working with all types of personalities. In addition, sometimes you will be in a position of authority and sometimes you won't. Either way, you have to influence change and that means getting people at different levels in the organization to go along with change.
 

You don't have to change "them" or their flaws, but you do have to know how to mobilize a team of people headed in the same direction. Be very in touch with your thoughts. If you feel like you are stuck or cannot influence change, you are not managing. Examine the relationships where you feel you can't influence change. Do not focus on changing them, they won't change unless you change the way that you interact with them.
 

 

Systems focus everyone on the end result. If you're focused on the end result then you're focused on ensuring that the business gets what it needs. In addition, systems clear up any miscommunications and provide much needed clarity to employees. As a manager you have to be an advocate for systems. If you don't use them, if you don't bring people back to the systems, then your team will not use them. It is up to you to create a culture where your team's first reaction is to look at the systems.
 

• Be organized. You can't have ownership of a task or your department if you're dropping the ball. Organization for a manager means that you know what projects you are working on, the priority of those projects, the status of each project, and the next action steps to move each of them forward. As a manager, the action steps will be yours, those of your team, and things that you are waiting on from vendors or even top management. Documentation is key. There is absolutely no way you will be able to remember everything without dropping the ball somewhere.
• Have control of your time. You will be pulled in many directions. Until you have systems defined and in use you'll be putting out fires and working on strategic areas of the business. It's a lot to handle, which is why time management skills are needed. You should be blocking out time. You should be planning your week ahead of time. Time management is never perfect. There will always be fires to put out, distractions, and setbacks, but you won't ever have control of your time unless you're more intentional about how you spend it.
• The ability to delegate. Delegation is a foundational skill that you will need as a manager. Every result in your department is your responsibility. If you are not able to delegate well there will be issues. Delegation is not an art. It is a skill. If your team isn't doing well with a task you've assigned, then you need to look at how you delegated and your systems, before you think of it as a people problem. Remember, manage the systems. 
• Remove blame. Being a manager requires you to think about problems from solutions based thinking. If you think in terms of blame or fault, you will get stuck. As manager you must act, and when there is a pattern of things that are not working you need to take strategic action. You need to go back to your systems. Removing blame doesn't mean to let things slide, but it means to remove that as an excuse. Focus on your systems. Focus on making sure the business has what it needs. If your systems are spot-on you'll have fewer people problems. The team members you do have problems with should be easy to deal with based on your human resource systems.