My Management Essentials
Number |
Key concept |
Explanation |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Team ≠ Group. |
It is a preferably heterogeneous group, which designs, develops and executes actions that contribute to achieving a common goal for all. A goal that is defined, by means of objectives (the so-called SMART) and that is steadily chased, and analyzed in an orderly manner through indicators. And that speaks in a common language, established by all. |
| 2 |
Team = Group if it meets 5 Cs. And it acts as such when it listens, analyzes, proposes, plans, executes and follows-up (checking and acting) |
5Cs = complementarity, coordination, communication, confidence (trust) and commitment. |
| 3 |
Value creation. We are providers of solutions and opportunities. We are part of the solution, not of the problem. |
Work makes less sense if it is not understood as an activity in which value is being created. The individual and collective motivation lies in the fact that one does something to improve the good of all. |
| 4 |
Analytical and objective approach. No to the MBOP (management by opinions). Yes to the MBOB (management by objectives). |
The minimization of perceptions leads to an equivalent action of the emotional problem. Parameterizing actions helps the common view of problems. I indicate minimize, not eliminate. The work must also have a passionate component, of “gut-feeling”, without everything being rational or statistical, responding to figures. That makes it an activity that humanizes. |
| 5 |
P and L. From Profit and Losses to Versatility and Generosity (in Spanish, the initials are the same ones). |
It does not matter so much who does it, but have it done. There is no such thing as “this is not for me.” |
| 6 |
Standardization of best practices. Don’t invent the wheel twice. |
Since childhood, I was taught that you have to learn from the best ones. And that I did not waste time on things that were already invented, thus reserving my ingenuity and my potential for what still were to be done. |
7 |
The responsibility is not delegable. But it is so the capacity of decision. |
Tasks are delegated. And with them, the capability to decide. This should be taken at the lowest possible level, empowering that activity. This has a corollary: error must be part of the culture of organizations. It is good to be wrong. Because only the decision maker is wrong. And who learns from decisions, accurate or wrong. |
| 8 |
There is no email that replaces a good conversation. |
Whether in person or by phone, the conversation should prevail whenever possible. Email is an element of support, not one that substantiates relationships at work. |
| 9 |
The good, if it is brief, is twice as good. But the brief, if it is also good, it is perfect. |
In this communication society, being concise and also hitting the message, it’s an art. The telephone is a mean to cut distances, not to lengthen conversations. |
| 10 |
Credibility: no news, means no news. Communicate what needs to be communicated. No more, no less. |
Optimism, not scaremongering. Neither good news nor bad news. The ones that have to be given. In this way, communication is managed by carrying it out only when necessary. |
| 11 |
Meetings are a working tool, not an end in itself. |
Without an analysis of its need, a studied list of participants, script and timing, it is better not to do them. There is a risk of asymptotic discussions, meaning the non-return point from which the discussion contributes nothing in the time-value diagram. |
Number |
Key concept |
Explanation |