Better Managing Tips

Most people are under the impression that to be a successful manager, you have to be arrogant and up yourself. Nothing could be further from the truth. According to dictionary.com, the definition of humble is “not proud or arrogant; modest: to be humble although successful”. It’s a very under rated quality in the management world these days. As the definition says, you can be humble, yet successful. Isn’t that what we all want?

Years ago when I was working for a very successful telephony reseller for a major teleco, I saw many managers come and go over the years. The one thing I noticed about all of them was that they were full of humility, enthusiasm and drive. Once when they were into the swing of their new position, the majority of them went from being enthusiastic to arrogant and from arrogant to I couldn’t stand being in the same room as them. I could never work out what happened to them as to why the change in their personalities. The only conclusion I could reach was that any measure of power can corrupt. Now, we’re only talking lower management positions here but I think the principal is the same.

One instance of a managers lack of humility and his downfall comes to mind. I remember working with one other manager who worked his way up the company ladder. He was good at what he did but his lack of humility used to drive me nuts. His attitude was that anyone who did a job lower than him was a total loser. The ones that he continually picked on were the office cleaners. He never made their jobs easy. He used to leave his lunch scraps on the desk, bread crumbs all over the floor, he left torn up bits of paper on the floor instead of in the bin, left a major mess in the kitchen and the list went on and on. In our daily dealings with each other one day I said to him that wouldn’t it be funny to see his reaction if the tables were ever turned on him. Meaning, how would he react if he was ever to lose his job and the only job he could get quickly was an office cleaning position?  He said that would never happen to him as he was too good for that and he’d be able to find a job just like that. I think you might already know where this is heading. As it turned out, sometime later, he was retrenched or so he told me (I still think he was sacked for his attitude in how he dealt with people). We lost contact for months until one day I ran into him in a shopping center. He was wearing a cleaners uniform and was pushing a trolley full of chemicals, mops and buckets. I couldn’t help but smile at the irony of it all. I have nothing against cleaners as I used to have a contract cleaning business myself. But seeing this arrogant man doing something he swore he would never do made me smile. He was a changed man I have to say and he did say that he regretted for being such an office doofus.

I have known many CEO’s and others in high management positions who were very humble people. Obviously just because you are humble doesn’t mean you will be successful. Other qualities and talents are needed. But what it will help you with is being able to recognize your shortfalls and where you need to work hard to be successful. Arrogant managers  think they know it all and don’t need to improve on anything and with that kind of attitude, many times they get left behind because they don’t grow. A humble manager, is that possible? Well, only you can answer that for yourself.

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