One of my measures of how good a manager is would be how they come into a room. A good manager (I’ve had a few) will come in and silently assess how things are running (because they’ve already looked up info themselves) or ask specific questions that show they understand the state of things and are there to help if needed.
Pull the “how are things looking” crap, and the rating drops quickly. And the funny thing is, the ones who do that didn’t actually want to hear the bad news I will eagerly pull up to drown them in. The look on their faces is worth it.
Basically, I can glean how much a manager knows about an operation by what first comes out of their mouth, and way too often it’s not much that’s useful.
One of my measures of how good a manager is would be how they come into a room. A good manager (I’ve had a few) will come in and silently assess how things are running (because they’ve already looked up info themselves) or ask specific questions that show they understand the state of things and are there to help if needed.
Pull the “how are things looking” crap, and the rating drops quickly. And the funny thing is, the ones who do that didn’t actually want to hear the bad news I will eagerly pull up to drown them in. The look on their faces is worth it.
Basically, I can glean how much a manager knows about an operation by what first comes out of their mouth, and way too often it’s not much that’s useful.
Had a director one who would start meetings with “Let’s get the worst news done first”.
On the occasion when there was no good news he’d say “Good news is we get to try again”
I miss that guy sometimes.