Motivation in Managing

Today I want to share one of the main lessons I learned from the book It’s Okay to be the Boss by Bruce Tulgan.

The job of managing is two-fold. One part relates to holding the person accountable to do their job and the other relates to helping the person succeed in their work. I think most managers focus too much on the “holding the employee accountable” part and not enough on the “helping the person succeed” part.

If you’ve hired the right person, you shouldn’t have to do too much of the “holding the person accountable” part. A good hire is self-motivated and doesn’t need a kick in the pants every other hour to stay on track and do their work. If you find yourself continually needing to hold an employee accountable just to do the job you are paying them to do, you probably need to fire that employee.

But even when you hire the right person, you still need to get in their business, know what’s going on, know what they are working on, etc. but not as to baby sit them or mother them, rather to be informed so you can help them win in their work.

So what’s your motivation in managing your staff? To hold them accountable or to help them succeed? Surely we need to do both, but with the right hire our focus should be on the latter, not the former.