This is Part Three of a Five Part series on what I learned in 25+ years in business. You can see Part One here and Part Two here.
To understand the title, you have to have known about Michael Scott, Regional Manager of Dunder Mifflin Paper Company in Scranton, PA. Played by Steve Carell, Michael Scott was something of an unorthodox manager (to say the least). The title of his book is Somehow I Manage, although he never published it. Watch the series and you will understand more.
Items 1-51 appeared in the first two parts. Here are the next 25 or so!
52. Learn to understand and how to motivate others. Find their currency and know that most of the time it isn’t about money. It is about satisfaction and of being a part of something bigger than themselves. Remember these words: “If you want to build a ship, do not drum up people to gather wood, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.”
53. If in business or even in a governmental organization, understand your contract, your mission, your responsibilities – perfectly. If it is a contract you are tasked with managing, then keep a bound copy close at hand. Mark it up. Test your knowledge. Manage your performance against the contract as if you owned the business.
54. Plan, plan, plan. Failure to plan, is planning to fail. Then … follow the Plan. If you don’t know the Plan, you cannot follow it. Ask. Then follow.
55. Eliminate clutter. If it isn’t used, throw it away. This is a mental process as much as it is a physical process. Avoid mental clutter. Cut to the heart of every matter and discard the waste.
56. If it ain’t broke, break it anyway and see what happens. Bump into power buttons. Go forth and fail. To profit from your mistakes, you have to get out and make some. In other words, do something, anything, and worry about failure another time.
57. Challenge the status quo, but with aplomb and class. Someone once said, “Learn the rules well, so you know how to break them properly.”
58. Understand your mandate! WHY did you get hired? WHY you and not someone else? What about YOUR background and experiences did your boss want brought to bear on her organization? What changes are you expected to make? Understand your mandate clearly. Check back with your boss frequently. Ask for guidance. Ask for a weekly check-up. Whatever it takes for you to understand your mandate. Ask, “am I the employee you thought you hired?”
59. Stay Humble! The old saying goes like this: “If you are the smartest guy in the room, you’re in wrong room.” Remember that. You may think you’re the second coming, you may think you are precisely what the organization needs, but … stay humble. Yes, you were hired because your background and experience fit the bill, but until you prove yourself, and prove it with the resources you are given (plus those you argue effectively for), you are on probation. Arrive early and stay late. Work hard. And here’s something else to consider: write your boss a resignation letter. Do not date it. Tell her that she can execute it at any time. It will blow her away.
60. Develop colleagues, not friends. Have a life away from work. Avoid too much socializing with colleagues. Remember, they are NOT your friends. See the next point.
61. Remember, a company is not a family. Family is where you can go, and they must let you in. Not so an enterprise. It exists for itself (although this is lass true for networking and mentoring organizations, by the way, which can be like family given the intimacy).
62. In all the work that you do, make damn sure that you are adding to your experience set. You took the job because it offered something you did not have before. Ask, therefore, “What skills am I leveraging in this new position? What skills do I hope to gain?
63. Read about Strengths Finding. Take the Gallup assessment. Know your top five strengths. Remind yourself everyday what they are and why they rose to the top. Live them.
64. Develop your team and it will develop you. As you rise in the ranks, find your replacement. Mentor your staff. Coach, don’t manage. Lead, don’t supervise. Macro-manage – avoid micro-managing at every turn.
65. Join a book club.
66. Have a hobby that takes your mind in another direction other than what you do day in and day out. Mine are trains and gardening.
67. Follow the 12-Steps even if you never had a drink or took a drug in your life. We are ALL in recovery from something. Remember this maxim, “There are only two kinds of people in the world, those with issues and … the dead.”
68. Don’t bend over dollars to pick up dimes. Spend your own money and do not worry about reimbursement from the company. If the company doesn’t supply pencils, go out and buy your own. Need a computer and the company doesn’t have it in the budget? Go out and buy your own.
69. Watch David Foster Wallace’s This is Water over and over again. Adjust your default settings.
70. Don’t fish from the company pier. Find a woman or a man outside of the company. Go home to a sanctuary that has nothing to do with work.
71. Don’t demand of others what you don’t demand of yourself. Give away your time and money. Do pro bono work. Set an example for others to follow but don’t expect miracles.
72. Quit Facebook. Today. Quickly. It is a time-suck of galactic proportion. And for Christ’s sake, don’t require your customers to sign up with Facebook to view your marketing. All you’re doing is enriching Jeff Zuckerberg and forcing an extra step on your customer. Stop it.
73. Stay on LinkedIn. I say this, not because I am a Microsoft Alum, but because it works and is a wonderful place to network.
74. Learn statistics. Stop avoiding them. Understand the standard deviation and data distribution. Engage in statistical analysis.
75. Budget. This is related to having a plan but is a sub-set. A plan is of everything. A budget is of the money. Remember that cash is king, and free cash flow is like, well, like whatever is above a king. Understand the statement of cash flows for your organization and have one created monthly.
76. You must know your budget. Make sure everyone that reports to you knows their’s. Again: They too must know their budget. Go old-school: make them memorize it.
Thoughts about Part Three? I’d love to hear from you!
