By Anderea Morara
Many managers are in a hurry to get things done. Those in industry are preoccupied with meeting production and sales targets.
Others are working their backs out trying to prepare performance and progress reports. Some, having failed to meet expectations, are desperately trying to find someone to apportion the blame on.
Good managers, in addition to ensuring that things get done, always find time to think through the management precepts that guide them in their daily chores.
Successful managers are usually in tune with certain fundamental management principles.
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A poor manager can get away with a few blunders, but sooner than later, he meets his Waterloo and bites the dust career-wise.
It is for example confirmed by a number of studies that few rise to managerial stardom without sustained proactiveness.
Strategic management entails having a nose for imminent risks and opportunities so that one is in a position to forestall most of the challenges while taking optimum advantage of emerging opportunities.
Unfortunately, many managers, largely due to a lack of foresight, are embroiled in diffusing fires rather than building their organisations.
Dickson, one of the most educated managing directors in Kenya in the 1980s, frantically watched as his financial institution and his plum job folded on his face.
For several years, the company, GFC, had been doing very well in giving credit for business and asset loans. The managing director and his team were so obsessed in making the next million that they forgot to factor changes in the business environment into their strategies.
To make matters worse, a series of Press articles gave them mountains of accolades as the first indigenous company to rake in consistent and rapidly growing profits for an interrupted period of 10 years.
However, while extolling the company, some of the business writers also inadvertently leaked some of GFC’s business secrets to the competition.
think-tank
Instead of using the exposure to refine their product development and marketing strategies, GFC rested on their laurels and continued to work hard but in the same old ways, despite the fact that financial regulations had just changed.
It was not long before the competition zoomed in, snapped up their market, and within no time GFC’s managing director and his lieutenants were out of job, with the collapse of GFC.
Dickson’s management flaws were partly responsible for GFC’s demise.
As one of the most educated and fastest rising stars in the financial sector, he had little time for anyone’s opinion. Since he considered himself the GFC’s sole think-tank, he hardly welcomed any suggestions from his staff apart from weekly sales reports. He only focussed on overtaking the next financial institution in turnover and profits.
Below are seven canons of managerial success; which Dickson – now a freelance financial consultant – embraces and even teaches to some of his clients.
1. Be on the vanguard of change. Do not resist change. An idea whose time has come is unstoppable, resisting it will lead to your being cast aside.
Always plan ahead and seek to be proactive. You may not succeed all the time, but never fail to use your failures as learning experiences from which you draw lessons for your next successful move.
2. Do not be carried away by a few successes to imagine that you are a special being. It is always prudent to make provisions for possible failure and be prepared for the worst, though always aiming for the best.
3. Do not let criticism worry you unduly, but do not be overly defensive. Analyse each substantive criticism – where appropriate with a resourceful person(s) that you trust – and respond aptly without letting your ego block reality.
4. Do not try to be like somebody else. Do not let other managers set your standards. Borrow ideas, if you have to, but do not try to manage "like so and so". Be yourself: most people cannot stand fake leaders who try to portray what they are not.
5. Do not hold grudges. A manager who holds grudges against staff or other stakeholders is likely to make emotive decisions, and hence cannot be relied upon for objective guidance.
6. Do not stir up trouble. If things are going on well, do not rock the boat unwittingly. Especially do not go about acting on rumours or unverified information, or announcing your political preferences unduly. Acting on misinformation or eliciting bias is far more dangerous than taking no action.
7. Make your first calling the spearheading of your company’s progress, as against merely safeguarding current interests or nursing your ego.
For the politicians and civil servants, your first calling should be safeguarding the national interest through reform and fair play rather than focussing on the perquisites that accrue to you (or your clan/clique) due to the status quo.
The writer is the Executive Director of Capacity Development Africa Ltd. cdasedic@africaonline.co.ke
