After quoting myself one too many times, a friend of mine suggested I write down my management principles for all to see. Perhaps he thought to avoid my repetitive remarks. Regardless of his motives, it seemed like a good idea. I am too lazy to write a book, more on that in my rules, but a series of blog posts that I incrementally improve seemed achievable.
I am a civilian manager for the U.S. Navy working in technology management and acquisition. My experience probably translates well to any large English speaking organization, but your mileage may vary (YMMV). Years ago I wrote the outline below. I went searching for it to see if it stood the test of time.
1. Plan to do nothing, and you will certainly achieve your goals.
2. Management is hard, leadership is better and supervision is most difficult of all. Corollary: Hire people who don't need supervision.
3. Hiring is the manager's most important decision.
4. Stay on message. Communicate consistently. Repeat your theme repetitively.
5. The commodity in shortest supply is management attention. Corollary 1: The most important word in a manager's vocabulary is "no." Corollary 2: Email is an evil leach of your time.
7. Understand your firm's economic engine and your unit's.
8. Be careful what you ask for, you just might get it.
9. Deliver the bad news yourself, let your people deliver the good news.
10. If you can't cover yourself in glory, cover yourself in paper.
Did they stand up? Apparently not, because I skipped number six while counting to ten, which I attribute to not completing kindergarten. That's a story for another day. Since I first wrote these down, I was deeply influenced by Scott Adams book How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big and Nassim Taleb's The Black Swan. Those two books will influence my updates.
That's enough work for today.
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