QUOTATION 21

CHARLES HANDY ON WHAT MANAGEMENT SHOULD BE ABOUT

Use this to realise that management is infinitely complex and should be enjoyable, even when it’s hard.

Charles Handy (b. 1932) is an academic, business executive and probably the most respected British writer on management and leadership.

He was echoing the views of Robert Townsend (see Quotations 24 and 49) when he said:

Management is more fun, more creative, more personal, more political and more intuitive than any text book.

Charles Handy

Too often, management is treated with a certain pious reverence. Yes, management is serious but how you carry out that function doesn’t have to be without a sense of creativity, fun and humour.

WHAT TO DO

  • Fun has a bad name in management. If you’re having fun, you can’t be serious. What rubbish. Morecombe and Wise, the Marx Brothers, Will Smith and Clint Eastwood are or were supreme professionals in their own field and worked amazingly hard at their art but they have/had fun doing it. In this context, fun means enjoying what you do and having the time to share that enjoyment with the people around you. Do this and your sense of enjoyment will rub off on other people and improve the atmosphere and therefore the morale and motivation of your staff.
  • Management is not a natural science. There are no universal rules that apply to it. Management is always time, place, person and situation dependent. To deal with this you have to be constantly creative. You have past experience, knowledge of management theories and models, and some understanding of the people you are dealing with. This is your palate of colours from which you can either paint a masterpiece or a dreadful mess. Management is an art and the more you practise the better you’ll become. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes; experiment with different approaches and always remain flexible in your thinking.
  • Management involves dealing with people. The more you know about them, their attitude to work and life, their views and opinions, their dreams and ambitions, the better able you will be to predict their reaction in any given situation and how best to handle them. To learn about people, keep your mouth shut and your ears open. Remember, you have two ears and one mouth: use them in that proportion.
  • In any organisation, even a family, there is an element of political manoeuvring. In a few, dysfunctional organisations, people spend more time playing politics than doing their job. It’s entirely up to you whether you want to play the political game or not. However, you should know enough to be able to defend yourself from political attack, so read Quotations 61 and 73.
  • You know more about your organisation than you are capable of communicating to any other person. This tacit knowledge is held in your subconscious mind. When this knowledge is used, it’s often called intuition or gut instinct. Never ignore your gut instinct. If your gut is telling you one thing and the numbers another, recheck the numbers.

QUESTIONS TO ASK

  • Do I have fun at work? If not, is it because I’m in the wrong job, trade or profession?
  • Am I over-reliant on hard data when managing staff and/or making decisions? Do I need to pay more attention to the soft, intuitive data?
..................Content has been hidden....................

You can't read the all page of ebook, please click here login for view all page.
Reset