(PMG) Perennial Management Guidance — Shut Up, Listen … and Take Notes

Turbocharge your management skills

As a manager for over 27 years in various industries, there are timeless practices that apply no matter where you are, who you work for, and who you work with.

People are always people.

I’m retired now. As I look back on my career, these are the truths I stand by. Adopt them and management will become far more gratifying and the results something you will take pride in.

Photo by airfocus on Unsplash

I can’t take the credit for this one, it came from a Team Leader just prior to me managing a contact centre in the mid 90s.

They said the current manager always walked from the lift to their office without any acknowledgement to those who were already working. It was a 24 hour contact center, so there were always people on shift.

Later that year I was asked to step in as the contact centre manager.

I must have stored that information somewhere as from day one, with this observation in my head, I walked the “long way” to my office. Stopping at each desk to say hello if they were not on a call, how their shift had been and have a general one minute catch up. It wouldn’t be long, as the phone always rang. This was pre-internet, remember. If they were on…