How To De-Dork Your Management Style

Management gurus and a barrage of books examine the range of management styles and what makes sense in various situations. On the Internet, you can even test out your management style. There are so many labels and categories coming out now that to just sort out who has a model that makes sense to you takes a lot of time and energy. With too much data to manage nowadays, it is difficult to remember those styles, let alone pinpoint the recommended reaction each time a new situation comes up. Besides, people change and new situations often bring to the surface parts of us we don't even know. So, forget about labels and styles and categories. Let's start with something closer to home and easier to remember... our innate capacity to be management dorks. Remember dorks are made, not born. We can all recover.

1. Check out your own behavior. As a manager, you are not the King or Queen. You are just like everyone else: Someone trying to do your best. Often, the dork in us comes up when someone or something hits us in the area where we feel weak. Look into this. If you feel incompetent in an area, build up your competence. Better still, acknowledge and feel good about your other competencies...the ones others saw in you when they gave you the job. But, also acknowledge that your staff is competent, too (probably, more competent than you are in some areas). Accepting that others are competent, too, will make you less defensive and less likely to display public dorkiness!
2. Talk about the competence of your staff. Often it is better to say to your client or customer, "That is not my area of competence but we have one with us here who knows that inside out. Can I pass you on to him?" You will not go anywhere if you just fake it. Your job is to make sure your company has the best ideas or the best solutions for your clients and recognizing your colleagues' competence is a double win.
3. Be humble and ask when you do not know. Ask questions, ask for help, ask for ideas. You don't have to be the brightest light on the tree all the time. People will respect you for this and will feel better about you and themselves if their capacity to contribute is acknowledged. Be a leader, not a dorky know-it-all. Don't interrupt them when they're talking either, as if they are missing the key things. Relax and give them the floor. It is their organization, too.
4. Look to your own experience. When were the moments in your career when you had a really positive work experience with your manager or you really felt good about what your manager did for you or for anyone in the office? What did you admire most in what your manager did? Build up these qualities in yourself until it becomes a part of you.
5. Open your door. Don't sit behind your desk and expect people to bring papers to you to sign. If they do, make it a point to bring it back to them when you're done. When people come in, stand up to greet them. Talk to them face to face, not behind your desk. By the way, before you bring in your staff, look around your office walls. Degrees from the biggies! Photos with the big names! You're not the only one. We all do it to prove we are credible. Just know, it can be overwhelming and maybe unnecessary and maybe communicates a bit of insecurity. If you're really good, it's your staff that will talk, not your walls. Don't do the classic dorkwall.
6. Be proactive. Listen...listen carefully...but then make decisions. Take action. Rarely will the fate of the nation depend on the decision. If you mess up, you and your team (unless you've dorked them into indifference) will sort it out. How often have we heard organizations losing clients and projects because of the indecision and procrastination of the manager? Better the sin of commission than the sin of omission!!!
7. Be clear and direct about your expectations. Specify the results, the standards you expect and agree on the timeline. With your expectations, make sure you provide the resources and support needed for your staff to succeed. Everyone wants to succeed, so cheer them on.
8. Recognize the success of individual team members. Make sure over the course of a month that everyone gets at least one "attaboy." And please, please, please don't do the public roast of someone who made a mistake...that's why you were given an office. The idea is to make sure they don't do it again, not to humiliate them! Only the classic dork boss does the Attila the Hun routine in public.
9. Follow up. When staff brings something to your attention, follow up. Follow up on their professional growth, make sure you give them opportunities. Follow up on a problem brought to your attention. And if you can...let them know what action you took.
10. Treat your staff equitably but in a manner that fits their personality. You will be surprised at how well people perform when they feel they are recognized. When they sense you are playing favorites, they resent it. Solid treatment of one person may be seen as classic dorkiness by someone else (heck...we don't even all like bow-ties).  Each one is different so this is quite a challenge, but they will sense when you are trying.
11. Walk about and chat (quietly) with people. Do this especially with those who will never find the courage to go to your office and talk to you. You will find out that within your office are resources that will bring your products and services beyond assumed market environments and levels. Don't do the mega-dork..."Oh, I'm just too busy/important/accomplished to talk to any of you." If you're too busy, you may be a terminally crushed dork...or maybe you're doing their jobs. Your job is to help them do their jobs better.
12. Make the chat informal but informative. In one of those chats, ideas you have never thought of before will just pop up. You will be surprised at how much of your work will just flow smoothly when you do this. You also hear about problems and concerns before they become nightmares...listen...and remember...only a dork thinks he's listening when his mouth is open!
13. Go to their offices or desks when you need to discuss matters with them. People often get frightened when sent for by managers. They often think: What would it be this time? Remember MBWA (Management By Walking Around) does not have a D for dork in it.
14. Practice good manners. If you noisily mess up, publicly apologize. Open doors, don't march out first as if you are King or Queen Dork. Good manners are the glue that keeps potentially fractious offices stuck together.

Remember, you are just like everyone else: trying to do the best you can. So keep on trying. When they see you are trying very hard to de-dork, they will be right behind you.