I'm a big fan of Alison Green's blog, Ask a Manager, where she doles out thoughtful advice and tough love to readers. Though I've never worked at a nonprofit, I decided to read the book and see what I could learn about management in general. Trust me, whether or not you work for a nonprofit, if you currently manage people or aspire to be a manager, this book is a great resource.
I have managed people before, but I tend to care more about the people than the business. Not the worst trait in the world to have, but not always effective, either. When I became a manager, there wasn't any sort of training available to me at my company. As I've progressed through other companies in the role of instructional designer charged with creating management training, I've found that to be the norm. We promote people because they're really good at their jobs, when we should be looking beyond that to see if they will make effective leaders who can motivate others.
Alison and co-author, Jerry Hauser, present information in a very accessible way. I had never thought of management as getting things done through others. After I read that, I thought, of course! I knew that, as a manager, the buck stopped with me, but my first management experience was in a company where managers still carried the full workload of a regular team member and sort of had power over their direct reports. Sort of? Yes, we could try to enforce rules and such, but the company was always so afraid of being sued, consequences were rarely imparted and almost never upheld.
The book is divided into three parts: Managing the work, managing other people, and managing yourself. There's clear guidance on how to balance being hands-on while being hands-off. The book also includes tons of great resources, including worksheets and planning tools.
I've highlighted about 28 pages, so I can't share all of my favorite moments, but here are a few:
• What does guiding more and doing less look like in practice? 1. Agree on expectations. 2. Stay engaged. 3. Create accountability and learning.
• When you’re assigning work, look for opportunities to make the assignment truly a conversation, as opposed to simply dictating every element. For instance, if there’s flexibility in what the finished project should look like, ask the staff member what she thinks the outcome should be. You can also ask questions around the other pieces of delegation, such as, “So who else do you think needs to be involved? ” and “Do we have samples that might be useful here? ” and “What timeline makes sense? ”
• Here’s what the different pieces of MOCHA stand for: 1 Manager Assigns responsibility and holds owner accountable. Makes suggestions, asks hard questions, reviews progress, serves as a resource, and intervenes if the work is off track. Owner Has overall responsibility for the success or failure of the project. Ensures that all the work gets done (directly or with helpers) and that others are involved appropriately. There should be only one owner. Consulted Should be asked for input or needs to be bought in to the project. Helper Available to help do part of the work. Approver Signs off on decisions before they’re final. May be the manager, though might also be the executive director, external partner, or board chair.
• Managers often define their staff members’ roles in ways that use those staffers as helpers to the manager rather than giving them roles with real ownership.
• When contemplating promoting someone, the most important factor to consider is not what sort of job the staffer is doing in her current position, but instead how strongly matched she is with the skills you need in the new position. Organizations often do the opposite of this: we have frequently seen outstanding staffers get promoted and then flounder because the skills that made them so effective in the first position aren’t the same ones needed for the new one. Most commonly we see this with promotions to managerial positions, since the skills needed to get results through others are often very different from those needed to get results on your own.
•The corollary of delegating as much as you can is that while you do less, you should guide more . And guiding takes time.
Highly recommend.
© Angela Risner 2014. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from Amazon or Angela Risner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Angela Risner with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
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- Reviewed in the United States on April 13, 2014
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Top reviews from other countries
- Daniel CayouetteReviewed in Canada on April 24, 2018
Great book from ask a manager author.
- Emily TurnerReviewed in the United Kingdom on May 6, 2019
Easy to follow advice to get you started
