I was inspired this morning by an interview in the Wall Street Journal, “What Managers Really Do.”  This is essentially an interview of Dr. Henry Mintzberg, a management studies professor at McGill University.  What inspired me most was the simple way he defined and clarified the role of a manager.  Here are the main points:

1. The Myth of Manager as Orchestra Conductor: While it would be nice to expect that a manager can write music and conduct an orchestra as Peter Drucker once said, Mintzberg opines that there are so many expectations for a manager it would be impossible to expect them to do them all perfectly.  As everyone has flaws, the best we can expect of a manager is that, under pressure, a manager’s flaws “are not fatal” to the organization.  This takes a lot of unnecessary pressure off of all managers–you do not have to be perfect.  You do have to be effective, efficient, and respond to the big challenges with appropriate leadership.  Recognizing your strengths and weaknesses and leveraging the former without losing control of the latter is tantamount to your effectiveness as a manager.

2. The Three Planes of Managing: According to Mintzberg, “you have a choice of managing through information, or through people, or through managing action.” In essence managing through action is the first plane, managing through people is the next plane and managing through information is the third plane.  Mintzberg issues a cautionary challenge for managers who manage solely through information saying “we have much too much managing through information–what I call ‘deeming.’…That’s the worst of managing through information.”

I agree.  Effective management, especially as it relates to sales management, requires action and people focused leadership.  An effective manager engages people into action, while training, coaching and motivating excellence, with an accessible, “roll up the sleeves” management style. An effective manager cannot manage people from behind a desk, screening phone calls, and being one or two steps removed from the action.  Take a look at your management behaviors–how close are you to the real action?