Last Saturday, I went out with Elizebeth DL and we talked about our assistant. I recently have a new assistant and today, another person joined my team, making it 2 assistants for me.
We complained a bit about our assistant, their tardy work and bad documentation, bad english, etc and I told Elizebeth DL that I end up being their assistant instead for spending time correcting all wrongs in those documentation.
Today, I talked to my Hubby about being a leader. My Hubby was rated as one of the best leader in the entire firm, beating hundreds of other senior management's rating. I asked him what did he do to get that kind of rating.
He told me that one thing about a good leader is to know how to share and to know how to help your subordinates improve themselves. It is important that one can approach you easily when they face problem in their work and you have to guide them on how to solve it. Not helping them solve it, but guide them. Teach them. He gave an example of me having to amend the work of my assistant; He says that if I do not guide her to improve on this, she will never be able to help me. If I managed to help her improve on this, my life will be much easier in the future.
He is right. All the time I was afraid that if I teach her so much, then she will overtake me. But I never think of how she will make my life easier if I just managed to guide her on how to improve work and I will never have to spend so much time correcting those mistakes in the future.
I put myself back in the shoes where I was a junior, and I realised that I love to work with those leaders who are really willing to teach me. Why can't I walk the same path as my previous leaders? I was so silly.
So I have drafted out a job allocation sheet, and team goals and have decided to have a meeting with my team to share my thoughts. It is also important to get their feedback and support to what I want to do so that everyone shares the same goal.
I now believe that I can make my team one of the best team in my organization with quality work & deliverables. I want to achieve this. Will I make it?
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14 comments:
Hi Purple,
I like your thoughts and I agree with you and your hubby. Being a good leader must be able to guide in order to be a respectable leader. Once respect is gained, the person will work harder with you to achive your goal, make life easy for you and towards success as a team.
what if you guided your assistant for more than 1 year, and she still have the same ass work???
I also believe your hubby is a good leader. And he has a big team. For person who has just 1 assistant, it's unfair for her to stuck with such low capability and bad attitude assistant.
Once you are a shit, you are forever a shit, no matter how much perfume you spray on the shit.
I have given enough trial on my dear assistant. She will never be up to my expectation, because she doesn't have the right attitude.
ARGH!!!!!
I'm sorry but I do not agree with your hubby. That's far too simplistic and conventional.
First and foremost, study your people; their talents, their ability, their passion, their weakness, and most of all, the prime importance is their attitude and respect for you as their leader.
Then, pick who you wants into the bus and throw out those you don't want based on the analysis.
Once you have a team of people whom you want, gather them for a strategic team formation exercise. Everyone will be briefed about what you expect from them in their work - job scope, time, cost, quality, risk and behaviors.
Then ask them to make presentation of what they can do and what they cannot do and what they can do but can't do well.
This will identify their training needs and possibly identify their coaches and mentors necessary.
From now on, build competency, teamwork and team spirit.
Enable your people before you delegate.
Empower only when they have the competency and right attitude.
Set targets of achievements for the group, monitor and measure them.
Celebrate every small winnings; reward them in simple ways; give recognition and built super-team.
Most of all, have a common enemy, ie, mission and vision.
This advice is free; next time you have to pay. if you dislike it and thinks it's nonsense, discard it.
BTW, I am sorry but I also disagreed with your dream mission.
You draft job allocation sheet? How could you allocate works without first knowing the competencies and qualities and abilities of your people? Who is the best person to do what?
Share your goals? Hello, everyone has goals and dreams and you want all your staffs to make your goal a success while they sacrifice theirs? It's "Our Goals" and how can you say it is ours when you did not let them pour out to you what they want?
Best team? How can the team be the best when each of them were not given tasks which they were most passionate to do and would give 110% efforts because of the passion and because they know they will be rewarded with a job well done.
Well, for as long as you can treat mediocrity as a success, you will still get satisfaction. And if others, your competitors, are also mediocre and are stupid, you can be assured of greater success coz others are more stupid.
Li Mei: Thank for your support. I think we all have been in the same team and knows and able to see who is a respectable leader and who is not. There is really a clear difference and I am trying to learn from those whom I believe in.
Elizebeth: I think it's time to kick that ass hole off. If I were you, I really find ways to make her leave if sacking is not an option.
Maverick: You know what my hubby does meh? To me, I respect the kind of attitude that he has. For the kind of work that he does, so many late nights and shit jobs and still being so passionate about it and bringing every project to success, you have no right to say if he is wrong or right. His achievement today has proven himself. Though my hubby cannot put into words like how you did, he is still a natural leader. I read some blogs written by his team (yes, I googled my hubby's name and found his name on a few blogs in China) and I must say that his people really respect and love him as a leader.
As for your other points, I truly agree and it is something that I will keep in mind.
As for your second comment, I don’t really understand what your last sentence is about. Second, I have to disagree with what you have to say in your first few para. Why? Firstly, you have no idea of what my job is about. Second, I do not draft a job allocation sheet and assign to whoever. We do sit down for a roundtable discussion, talk about their best and worst area, and whether they are willing to take on the new challenges ahead and agreed with who-do-what next. I can only support them and guide them the way to move ahead, if they want to. If they want to remain as donkeys, then I have nothing to say.
Goals…are divided into our project goal, and their personal goals. Their personal goals, a bit out of my scope, but I will reflect whatever they have achieved to the boss for the reward that they deserve. (My current boss is to me a good leader and he values the effort that we put into our job.) But if they have some other personal goals at the back of their mind which they keep quiet about or which does not align with the company policy and goals, what can I do? ( I also don’t know how to handle if this happens because I am also still learning and trying to be someone) Also, it is important for them to know that it is going to be they themselves who will help them achieve what they want, not me. I don’t do magic. But I will always be there to support and guide them.
To me, I work best in an environment where I believe in the organization and the management’s capability. I don’t know what and how others really think but many people are easily motivated and demotivated by the slightest change that happens here and there. All I can say is that I will try to do how others whom I perceived as my mentor and leader do. But whether it works or not, it is really a matter of preferences because each individual perceive things differently. This is just like our opinions here. As the saying goes; Opinions are like asshole. Everybody has one.
Wah... my comment so long. It's like a blog by itself.
And oh... Maverick, on your point to pick who you want into the bus and throw out those you don't want, this will only apply for people like my hubby who has a big team. He does that.
But for me a keci-miao with 2 assistant, what bus? Motorbike maybe.
Purple, hahaha... don't worry; your hubby and you are doing alright from what I read; now you're telling me your job; sure I know what you do...accountants!!!
I just write to tickle you...
But what I say is ideological and philosophical and it is intended to prise up your mind and have a critical reflective attitude towards your thoughts and desires.
I believed your hubby is doing great; and you too are doing great. But if you think you are doing well, then it is the beginning of the end of the knowledge journey and you will soon stop learning.
I don't intend to write the comments to ridicule you or your hubby. I just wanted to have some fun and I write objectively, without implying that you are wrong... but I want to be nasty to you because you are such a beautiful girl..
purple mushroom, at least yours is a "motorbike" team. Mine? Is a keci-really-miao bicycle... rusted some more.
Yes, I am thinking of ways to kick her out. PLEASE pray for my good news.
Maverick, why do you think I am an accountant? I am not. I am also writing objectively to point out that I did not blindly do the ABC's of 'how to be a good leader'. To me, some people are just born with the ability to lead, they just know how to do it better than the rest. But for me, perhaps I have none of those ability, or perhaps I do have a little of such ability. I really don't know. But I know I dislike managing people because these lot are the hardest thing to manage. Like I say, I really don't know what others have in mind or how they think or what agenda they have on their own.
Looking back at my team of 2 girls, they are good at their work. But they need more guidance working on global projects. Their main weakness, as I can see and which they themselves acknowledged, is the communication and presentation skills with people from other countries. I want to help them improve on this so that I will not be the only one doing all the communication work all the time, acting like a secretary.
My Hubby told me that I need to open up and teach and guide them, instead of reserving every knowledge to myself. I realised that I should open up, like I have mentioned in my blog. I have already done my first step yesterday by sharing this idea of knowledge transfer to them, and I can see the girls are very happy to have the opportunity to learn. They also told me the issues and problems that they encounter and wanted to look for ways to counter those problems.
I guess this is where me, as the team leader should step in and help them. I really hope I can do it.
Leos are born great leaders....i'm a leo...ask me ask me....kikikiki...
just kidding lah.
everyone has different leading skills :-)
yeah..i think it's important to have a good relationship with ur subordinates. don't be too harsh on them..but don't be too lenient..praises r good..it's good to have discussion.
what i would hope my boss is la as a junior! =)
Purple, you wrote as one who is deeply distressed.
Let me share with you what I think.
First and foremost, leading people is easy; and as long as you believed it, then it is. Descartes said: I am, therefore I am.
Secondly, leading people means getting them to do part of your work; (you must accept it this way). So, they must first be able to do it, that is, have the competency to do it. If they do not, then they need training, coaching or mentoring. This is easy.
Thirdly, if they had the competency, then the next question is, do they have the right attitude to do the works efficiently and timely. This is difficult. If they do not have the right attitude, that is, an attitude required for performance - enjoying the works given, having the passion to work, and having the challenge to succeed - then, you have an "open door" policy: ask them to walk out the door!
Lastly, to succeed as a leader you mist have empathy, care, love and perseverance. You are focussed on that mission to succeed, you will make it enjoyable to reach the end by the means. Work must be enjoyable and fun. Work is inherently boring, tiring and stressful; so you must derive ways to intermittently inject fun and joy and see to it that your two girls are truly enjoying the work as if it is a sports or a festive preparation.
If you just do all that, leadership is natural and it is something you don't even know until you hear it from others.
Hope it works for you. First of all, enjoy it, and make it enjoyable for your team.
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