Do you find it difficult to move from task to task or are you very flexible when it comes to retaining and evaluating a lot of different information? Or perhaps the idea of having to manage others really turns you off? On the other hand, maybe you're the type who has never been bothered by the idea of delegating and loves the challenge of long-range planning.
There are all different types of managers; some are much more successful than others. Many times managerial success is directly tied to your own personal strengths and weaknesses as well as your personal action style. The chart below outlines three common management action styles and describes the strengths and weaknesses of each type. Before we go any further, let's take a look at each one.
|
INACTIVE |
REACTIVE |
PROACTIVE |
| Who is leading? |
Co-workers, chance, nearest personality disorder. |
Chance, nearest personality disorder. |
You. |
| Can subordinates depend on leader (trust)? |
No. Cannot predict what will happen. |
Yes. Can expect late, usually disorganized, often negative behavior. |
Yes. Can feel safe because they trust action even when they disagree. |
| Frequency of stress situations |
Immediately, at level of chance; increases over time because team does not develop to meet increasing demands. |
Never-ending; often self-producing. |
Little emotional stress (burnout); physical stress only when systems are temporarily disrupted. |
| Severity of impact |
Often unknown until after weeks or months, then severe. |
Severe; to survive, staff block awareness; subordinate staff productivity is minimal. |
Minimal for given issues and of brief duration. |
| Quality of training for subordinates |
Little, if any, effective training provided; most done by other subordinates. |
Training negative because it's given to correct action already taken. |
Organized; gives what is expected to do job, time to practice, and re-evaluate. |
| Productivity |
Random level; level development on one or few individual subordinates. |
Low level; too busy to get any task done; lots of partially completed tasks cause lessened level of support from others. |
Good level; efficient use of time and resources. |
| Service Delivery |
By individual, not team, so not consistent. |
Higher than needed; number of poor decisions because of time. |
Consistent; slowly changing and improving. |
You probably noticed rather quickly that being proactive in your approach as a manager will get you much further and cause you much less stress than being either reactive or inactive. So why is it that all managers don't take a proactive approach? Well, managers are human too. Like everyone else in the world, they have their own perceptions and their own personal weaknesses.
