Monday, April 10, 2017

A Manager’s Mirror, Episode III


Align expectations, then update; or expect failure!
by Georgina Popescu





This Episode could be also called ‘Managing - up and down and all around...’

I am talking about one of the basic economic principles, the law of supply and demand, and the effect it has on price, applied to the management of tasks, strategic goals, priorities and (limited!) resources.

The more ‘scarce’ your product is, the better the price you can tag to it (and I am not talking only money, but also time!); the more reliable you prove to be as a supplier in terms of quality, the more orders you will get. It is not really much philosophy, you have to see your team’s work as a high class product and build a brand around it.

Considering this, the message today is: make sure you can deliver what you commit to. Otherwise you will not survive for too long in the market place. Cutting a few corners to deliver ‘something’ just to meet a deadline may get you a pat on the shoulder today, but may prove costly in terms of reputation tomorrow.

The competent and credible manager is actually a contemporary wizard, who creates the right balance between whatever his team supplies and the demand for that ‘thing’ all around - upwards, downwards and lateral, internal and external, formal and informal. He (or she) has the ability to adjust the product / service to the ‘market’, comprehend what is expected from them compared to their delivery capabilities and react in a proper manner - by accepting, refusing or negotiating the conditions of respective ‘order’. And just like in any marketplace, the community prospers when the demand and supply naturally influence each other and move along in a common direction for mutual satisfaction.

That is all I had to say this week. Still, as this is an important week for Christianity all around the world, I will end the post with a managerial approach to the famous ‘Serenity Prayer’:

May my team grant me the serenity to say 'Yes'
to those tasks we can duly deliver in time and within quality parameters expected from us,

May my boss encourage us to say 'No'‎
to those things we cannot deliver or should not waste our time and capacity on (as they are so useless!),

May our (good) reputation grant us the credibility to say 'Yes‎, under condition that...'
to all those things that need a different angle to turn from 'good' to 'great', with a decent marginal ‘effort to result’ rate,

And

May we all have the wisdom to know the difference and timely adjust to changing times whenever needed.


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