Excuse Me, Are You a Manager or Messenger?

The other day I talked to one manager about how to upgrade his team so that they can perform better. He answered me, "I don't know, if I upgrade them, wouldn't they be more capable than me and soon take over my job?"

This is a clear example of the thinking of a messenger not a manager. There are 7 ways that you can tell your manager is just a messenger and not a manager:

Never Develop himself or his team. You'll be shocked to find out that there are many managers out there that have never attended any non-technical courses since they left school. Some of them don't even know that such courses exist! Unbelievable but true!
Good in Passing the Buck. As we know, a manager must take up the blame even though he has no control over the hiring of his team. As long as the team is under his responsibility, he must be responsible for ALL their actions
Hardly Motivate, Inspire or Encourage his people. Worse still, such 'managers' often de-motivates and discourages people with his sarcastic remarks and negative thinking
Operates with Minimum Communication. Such a 'manager' hardly listens to people, never take suggestions and often issues last-minute instructions with little concern for others' workload. In fact some of these 'capable managers' are proud of the fact that they can communicate so little and still 'get work done'!
Treats Bosses Very Well, Treats Team Poorly. This is self-explanatory
Shies Away from Difficult Situations, Prefers to live inside comfort zones
Spends More Time Working In the Business and Little Time On the Business. Such a manager is operating more like a staff, as he just holds the title of manager but hardly does any management or leadership. Almost all his time is on doing the technical work EVEN THOUGH HE HAS PEOPLE UNDER HIM.

If you too want to turn your messengers into managers, start by waking them up with a course. The next run for How to Be an Effective Manager and Leader is on 15 January 2015 Wednesday 9 am to 5 pm. Limited seats left, so register early. For details, email to andythecoach@gmail.com or click here. Related articles on management:

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