Harvard Business Review - Becoming a High Performance Manager

Was glancing around my neighbourhood bookstore for a good read, and decided that it was time to study into the issues surrounding middle management and examine whether I was doing a decent job.

It turns out that there are a lot of commonsense "guidelines" but which I didn't really have the mental capacity or experience to think of until I read the book. (Didn't get much proper training before I took up this position!)

Some of my key takeaways:

1. Passing the monkey. Being conscious of where the next "initiative step" lies when managing work in one's team. Managers who try to help their team out by asking for balls to be lobbed into his / her court (either consciously or unconsciously) actually decrease the value that they can bring to the team - the pipeline soon gets clogged up and the manager finds himself / herself being unable to focus on larger issues such as prioritisation. Proper empowerment and giving clear instructions are key.
2. Focus and prioritisation. Still one of the most difficult things to do as a manager - how to select the most important tasks and putting in the most effort in them.
3. "Wasting" time. Apparently, managers "waste" a lot of their time. Much of their day is unplanned, much of it spent with people (even those beyond direct reports and superiors) and includes many disjointed conversations. (This actually resembles my worklife nowadays.) According to HBR, managers actually get alot done during these "time-wasting" activities. They subtly influence and set agendas, gain both direct and tacit information from their vast networks which help them make better decisions. To do this effectively, I feel that they need to have a very clear idea of their objectives - so that seemingly disconnected events throughout the day can be shaped and optimised to contribute to the larger goal, even if it were unplanned.
4. Courage. The troops look to the leader to know how to feel in stressful situations. While this seems to show that one needs to develop nerves of steel to be on top, studies seem to imply that people who are put into leadership positions gradually develop more serotonin levels to deal with stress anyway.
5. Empowerment. Managers need to cultivate an environment where people have the space to be released to do what they do best, and not fear failure. Focusing on solving problems rather than nitpicking on people's faults and mistakes is another lesson. People are naturally hardwired to want to be "sent in", and it is often circumstances that dull this inner desire.