The Sorcerer's Apprentice

“The key to being a good manager is keeping those who hate me away from those that are still undecided” Casey Stengel

I was listening to a new podcast that my friend Barry Doctor recommended.  It's called Product Life and this is their inaugural broadcast.  Their first guest was Kim Phelan.  A Product Management VP at Clear Fit.  She was very knowledgeable and well-spoken.  One thing she said of interest (to me) was talking about where Product Manager's come from.  She said that seldom do they come from just out of school, that they need to experience other customer-facing jobs first.

I understand and agree with that but still find it sad.  And, I’ll tell you why.

It means we don’t have apprentices anymore.

It used to be that you’d start a new job and you’d be assigned to someone (a senior, supervisor, etc.) who knew the job and would take you by the hand and teach you the job. Then as positions opened by expansion or void or sometimes….sometimes….wait on it….by retirement supervisors would become managers, seniors would become supervisors and you’d become a senior. Thus, you worked for people that actually knew what you did because they had done the job themselves.

To be fair, that didn’t make them good managers, but it did make them good trainers. And once they got trained at being good managers it got passed along.

Today that entire system is out the window (and has been for a long time in the tech field) as people hop madly around for the next upward step in position and salary. So what we’re left with are administrative placeholders looking for their next hop. They’re new to the company as is their VP and probably CEO all wanting to quickly make their mark so they can swim on to the next island.

What has all this caused?

There are tons of lists from places like Glassdoor who research the lowest rated companies when it comes to employee satisfaction. This comes on top of an Art Petty blog on Evil Leadership and another of my favorite bloggers – Michael Hopkins – and his Customer Service experience from his Lead on Purpose site.

Wow, a new record. Six links in a single blog. This should keep you busy enough that I don't need to finish the post.

But, I will anyway.

I guess it should bother me that I have worked for companies on the "worst" list, but it really doesn’t mainly because it gave me so much material for this site. What does bother me is I’ve worked for companies that would have easily made this list had they been big enough to be noticed.

Big or small they each suffered from the same basic deficiencies in management, leadership and regard for their customers. It does, and has always, come from the top.

If you’re in a position of power take the time and steps to make sure your people know who they work for and what they do. If you can’t do it then assign them to a “master tradesman” who can.
Let’s get back to knowing what we do, why we do it, and who we do it for.

(And yes, Mrs. Gilbert, I know I ended that sentence with a preposition).