Ask The Manager

Ask The Manager.

 

Go ahead, ask him. Are you afraid? Is it possible you’ll be humiliated? Brow-beaten? Demoted?

 

Guess what? You’ve got the poster-child of “managers.” If your manager was a leader, you not only wouldn’t be afraid to ask him questions, you’d probably already have the answer.

 

True leaders check their egos at the door and empower their teams to achieve more than they’ve achieved. True leaders are like loving parents – they only want what’s best for their children and they strive to raise their brood better than they were raised. This doesn’t mean loving parents are pushovers, who allow their children to run around with knives and lit torches. True leaders, like loving parents, balance the short-term happiness of their charges with the long-term health and needs of the organization.

 

All leaders make excellent managers, but very few managers are leaders.

 

So, go ahead and Ask The Manager.

 

Are you the manager? Is your team afraid to ask? Don’t fool yourself, if you’re a typical manager, they probably are. When was the last time someone on your team made a colossal error that cost the company money? How did you react?

 

Leadership and empowerment are about helping people fail, because it is only by allowing tremendous failures that we can expect tremendous successes.

 

If you want your team to “Ask The Manager” try this little tip: the next time someone honestly and with the best intentions tries something new that fails, congratulate them in front of the entire company and award them a $100 gift certificate to their favorite restaurant. You’ll be amazed at the positive returns.