0 Management Style Matters
It has been an amazing month with Headmix. The style and agility at which we work through out iterations is the best I’ve been apart of. But in this post I will talk about collaboration and being an employee.
In the past two years since moving to Minnesota, I’ve worked under all kinds of manager styles from multilevel dictator-like situations to relaxed non-managed self-paced environments. Since starting at Headmix I’ve completely changed the way I work with those who manage my duties (and those who don’t) and the projects they relate to. But what I’m going to talk about now is why management style matters.
What We See Today
When one thinks about getting a new job we all dig up our must-have requirements that make a prospect job desirable. We often look for good pay, full vs. part time and how that relates to compensation, what the employees are like before you’re hired and often critically, what the benefits are. However, we all seem to forget about management style and when we forget about this important part, we land a job that seemed great, but turned out to be a nagging nightmare with no end in sight.
That is definitely how I looked at prospective jobs before I realized that employers are as much the interviewee as I am. After an interview the employer/interviewer will often ask if you have any questions for them. Typically nervousness causes us to say “not at the moment” as we proceed to exit the door realizing there actually are quite a few questions needing answers. Now what?
Why Management Style Matters
A particular management style will always require you to work a certain way. In some cases we can deal with this and adapt rather quickly. But sometimes the apple just doesn’t want to stay close to the tree. As a result we began to see poor performance, productivity and ultimately unhappy workers. But it doesn’t just stop at a single worker. Often a fellow colleague will pick up the slack and then they themselves start showing the same poor performance and productivity.
At Headmix, everything is at the forefront. All individual in the company know why and how their contributions effect the bigger picture, no matter how small they are. Granted, Headmix is small and lean, nevertheless size does not matter. There is always a manager, declared or not, in any team environment. In addition to yourself, management style plays a large role in how productive you can be.
Confidence In Contribution
Managers should always help their team understand whats expected of them. Often this gets lost as projects consistently pour in. You can mostly blame that on the fact that people forget expectations over time. In my experience I usually forget in the first month of starting a job. Certainly it wasn’t because I didn’t care but over time I simply couldn’t remember them and so eventually my own took the stage. It never helped that fellow colleagues didn’t care to remember as well
The biggest part of meeting expectations is firstly having confidence in your work. There is nothing worse than coming in everyday with a nagging feeling that your contributions (work) mean nothing in the end and that you’re simply a drone that help the corporate wheels spin. I’ve certainly experienced that on several occasions. It’s absolutely awful.
However, confidence doesn’t entirely come from within. It’s often validated by fellow colleagues and managers, whoever they may be. Knowing that your team demands good work adds a lot of value to what you’re contributing. Headmix does a great job of this. “Do good, consistent work or leave” has become a mantra for me at Headmix.
Conclusion
Hold fast to what kind of manager style you prefer. If you’re worth your salt, you deserve a good environment that embraces you to constantly get better and enjoy not only the work you’re doing, but the way in which you do it. You owe yourself that.