“5 steps to NOT being a horrible manager”

Like I said, I read blogs. A lot. One of my favourites is a Romanian entrepreneur’s blog , Dragos Manac (Romanian only). He writes rarely, but when he does, it’s “starred” in my reader . Re recently made a 5 step guide for all those new in management which I think is simply a must-know! Therefore I’m summarizing it for all who don’t speak Romanian.

He states that this guide should help you to not horribly fail or at least to wake up before you ruin all around you.

“1: Lean to be humble.”
The minute one(most) is in charge of one office, three people and a dog becomes all of a sudden a BOSS. All you over-night managers keep in mind this is not a life-time guaranteed position. You’re not any smarter, prettier or more interesting. You’re the same and the people you work with are the same. Be humble, don’t be a smart-ass or they’ll remember and your reputation will evolve accordingly.

“2: Learn to be responsible.”
EVERYTHING is your responsibility when the line is drawn: the people you manage, their results, the problems your organization faces. Any and every failure has one cause: bad management. So forget about excuses, motivations or anything like that. Nobody cares or wants that from you. What they do want is: “whit, results and responsibility”.

“3: Learn to delegate.”
If you think that by being the company hero, working 24/7, always saving the day, always helping out you are a good manager than you are wrong. You are in fact a “good-worker–bad-manager”. That’s all. Your team should be able to function and get the job done all by itself, without you. And it’s your job to organize your people in such a manner. If you are always under pressure, never have enough time and are the only one who can solve certain problems than you have failed as a manager.

4: Tell the truth in more than 50% of your conversations.”
Managers lie: common fact. But if this ball of yarn gets too big you will certainly tangle in it at some point. So keep your feet on the ground, your head in reality and a good control on your “story telling”.

“5: Do not enter in competition or conflict with your own team.”
You don’t have to prove you’re better or smarter than your colleagues. If you feel you have to than maybe you should give the person you are competing with a chance at your job. “A good manager recognizes value and exploits it”. On the other hand, what you can’t control, remove.

The author of this mini-guide is a Linux expert with many accomplishments and articles in the field and the manager of Ghelir.ro, a very successful Romanian “one-day-one-deal” site (something like Woot or Zazz!). Ghelir is a management/marketing/pr success story worth telling.

You can see the original article here. In my opinion what he writes has value and should not be restricted to a certain public just because his blog is only written in Romanian. I personally advise him to make an English blog too. Or better yet, since I assume his time is somewhat limited, he can have someone simply translate his posts. I believe it can make a difference.