Honestly, how many of you have ever heard from somebody: „No, you do not have to tell me, I know exactly what to do“?
I am very surprised that it´s many times managers or top managers who are saying this often. Sometimes I have a feeling I sit in front of “the king of wisdom” from whom I should learn. But opposite is true.
All of us are trying to find a job where we can bring our values to the company, to learn new things, to do our best and to see good results of what we did and of course to get paid for it 😊. So from this point of view, I understand to their attitude. But some of the people are forgetting that they are not walking alone on this planet. And these persons can bring a catastrophic result to the company, especially in position of a manager.
I am sad when I sit in front of a general manager, and I am nearly not able to say a full analysis or start solutions discussion without interrupting me with those words which I mentioned at the beginning. It is just clearly confirming why they need a help. On the other side it is difficult to help if the other side is not listening. If somebody thinks is the cleverest one, and know everything also how to solve the bad situation in their company, I do not understand why they call external advisor for help, when they say “I know it”. If the interruptions would be because of discussion about that topic or sharing ideas and opinions, it would be very different and it would be welcome.
I have been manager for many years, and I still learn and am willing to learn new things. Without it I would be stocked in a blind corner with not developing myself, with no future personal or professional growth. I have a big respect to all people whom I can learn new things from. I like to listen. And listening is the way of learning. Listening is showing respect and interest. If any meeting brings to me at least one small mind or new thing, then it was a good meeting for me with a pleasure I learned something.
If you listen, then you can hear new way of look at your problem, new proposal, new solutions, new ideas. If you do not listen, you will not hear the whole story and you will turn in a circle from which you can´t get out. Just to be a manager doesn´t mean your idea is the best idea. By listening carefully will come up more questions. Once you get the answers to those questions, you can find solutions in them, or at least to hear ideas, on which you can start up to build. Listening and reflecting are the skills which a good leader and a good manager should learn.
There are no extraordinary new things found in the world, its just experiences to be shared and brought to a managers from advisors, or good examples from other companies where you can inspire yourself. Listening will reinforce you.
Our experiences from some companies showed us how bad it can be even for huge company with huge turnover, with many employees, if there is “deaf” manager. His subordinates lost the willingness to come with ideas for solutions or lost their taste for positive changes or for any way of improvements, whole company just is getting “sick”. Even worse is the company is starting to be toxic itself from inside.Result is fluctuation, no positive growth of company or of financial results, stagnation or even slow fall.
A good manager should be of course clever in what he / she does and in what is responsible for. But nobody knows everything. President of each country has his own advisors. So even a manager has a feeling he is a king, maybe is in what he does, but for sure has also his own advisor in other areas. To be real king manager he should listen to those wants to help him to be better as team, as company, to have perfect advisors or subordinates around him, listen to them, discuss solutions, find the best solution, and bring it out back to the team . One player game is very different to a team game. If you are one player, better not be a manager.
Autor fotky: Andrea Piacquadio na Pexels
