VALUE OF A GOOD MANAGER?

What's the value of a good manager? "People leave managers, not companies" is a headline that immediately grabs our attention. Or it should if we're serious about being good managers. Why is that? Well, probably because it has a ring of truth about it. Whilst there may be many things we dislike about our jobs, the relationship between managers and employees is arguably the most critical. Employees who are well managed can forgive many of an organisation's shortcomings. When people are badly managed, there can be unhappiness, reduced efficiency and high staff turnover. When we resign, we often leave poor managers, not the organisation.

To develop good leadership qualities it's therefore critical to build continuous learning into our own routine and into the fabric of our organizations. To paraphrase Peter Drucker: its difficult to distinguish the important from the time wasting and the potentially effective from the frustrating. On your own there is never enough time to do this, and if there was, finding the valuable ideas would probably still take too long anyway! This is where it helps to recognize leading thinkers, and the value they can bring.

Improving management skills is not just about improving what and how we do things. It's also about improving the things we choose to do: getting the right things done?