Champions

In trials by combat warring tribes could settle their disputes by sending out their best warriors — their champions. These warriors championed the cause of their tribe. A battle between the champions settled a matter with much reduced loss of life and limb.

Have you seen a management champion lately? If you have, you cannot fail to tell that person that you've noticed. If it's your own manager, you cannot fail to express your appreciation. But if you haven't seen a management champion lately, then you should ask yourself where the process went wrong.

It's not unreasonable for managers to feel obliged to do the job for which they were hired. But how many signed-up without a discussion, let alone an understanding, about their responsibility to support those they were hired to supervise? (I could have said hired to "lead," but that seems to be a different concept.)

If mangers can't champion the causes of their staff, do we really expect that there will be invention, innovation or imagination in those areas?

The message is simple. Managers who are not champions for their staff are poor managers. Organisations that don't expect mangers to be champions for their staff are impoverished organisations. ▪

There is a smile of love,
And there is a smile of deceit,
And there is a smile of smiles
In which these two smiles meet.
—William Blake (1757-1827)

Specialist knowledge and vision

Perfectionists believe that their proclivity is a personal matter — it's not. Perfectionism creates bottlenecks in almost any organisation. Wrongly believing their delusion serves a higher purpose (such as quality) perfectionists' dissatisfaction with the contributions of their colleagues can be poisonous. The resulting disputes can become chronic. Perfectionism creates stress both for perfectionists and others.

But after that rant my point isn't about perfectionism, but about misdiagnosed cases.

• In any organisation there are people with often unexpected talents in one or another area. Do not confuse their display of superior knowledge in a "specialist" area for perfectionism.

• Do not mistake vision for perfectionism. Like chess players who are moves ahead, there are those who identify real problems (and opportunities) well ahead of others. (This is different in kind from perfectionists who see problems that aren't there or aren't important.)

If either supervisors or staff ignore such contributors, the benefits are lost. But worse, if they're made into pariahs, their ill treatment serves as a cautionary tale. Many organisations are in the grip of this kind of entropy.

And finally, in some things, such as health and safety, fairness and justice, kindness and care, we can afford a bit of perfectionism. ▪

Simple things should be simple.
Complex things should be possible.
—Alan Kay (b. 1940)