Tenets of Management Design: Focus on the basics, then move to style points
In this post, I continue to explore the tenets of the new field I’m pioneering, “Management Design.” Management Design is a response to the bad existing designs that are currently used in creating managers. These current designs describe how managers tend to be created by accident, rather than by design, or that efforts to develop quality and effective managers fall short.
So today’s tenet: Focus on basic tasks of people and team management, then move to style points
I introduce the concept of style points as a way of prioritizing what goes into creating great managers, and the steps that should be taken to get to the status of “great manager.” Style points are the flourishes that can be performed if you have successfully completed the fundamentals, the basics, or the preliminary tasks. Someone who tries to go for style points without having mastered the basics can look pretty foolish. Unfortunately, this tends to happen a lot with managers, both new and experienced. If you have ever rolled your eyes in response to a manager’s actions, then it likely he or she was trying get style points prior to having done something more basic.
