A manager in action

Ten week timetables, session plans, lesson plans and schedules is the basis of my working life as a college lecturer. Planning, planning and more planning is the order of the day, preparation ensures outstanding outcomes for both students and employers in my world.

What hinders our organisational outcomes is the lack of management direction, authority, decision making and laissiz faire attitude. I was in the Munich train station waiting in line seeking to purchase rail tickets to Prague, Vienna or Budapest when approached by what was the manager of die Bahn asking how he could offer assistance. In his softly spoken American accent, he listened to my plans and offered not only advice, he was back and forth to the counter grabbing brochures for me to read. It wasn't only just me, he worked his way down the line helping everyone.

He told me to wait for a certain booking staff as he was a guru for booking these particular fares, when it was my turn, he walked behind the counter and gave his booking agent a full run down on what we had discussed and he started looking for the best and cheapest solutions. He then grabbed his copy of the International New York Times newspaper, placed it under his arm and headed off for what I guess was a well deserved coffee.

The role of the manager is of course to manage budgets, accounts and financial statements, however, their role is more than this. Here was a manager who knew his product well, what he didn't know, he sought advice from frontline staff who did, he treated his staff with respect and understanding not encroaching on their technical domain and micro-managing their job, he possessed excellent communication skills and demanded respect by his actions.

I look to the management I am forced to endure with their poor communication skills, petty attitudes to team members, lazy demeanor and condescending attitude; they don't need to undertake a management course, they just need to spend one day with this guy to learn how to be a hand's on manager, getting out of the office and doing what they are supposed to do instead of just shuffling numbers around a spreadsheet. Yeah, I know you take daily hour and a half lunch breaks.

I am sure both Warren Bennis and Peter Drucker would both agree with me. We walked out of the office in a rush as we had less than 30 minutes to get fed and organised for our rail trip to Prague - now, that is an outstanding result.