GREAT MANAGRS PLAY CHESS

What is the one thing you need to know about great managing?

 

Quick what's the key difference between checkers and chess?

Don't read on. Just think about it for moment, what's the key difference?

 

When I ask this question in seminars the two most common answers are "chess is more difficult" and "chess is more strategic" both answers are true, of course, but both are unsatisfactory.

They leave the essence of the difference unexplained. Why exactly is chess more difficult, more strategic?

 

If you have a natural talent for managing (and have some familiarity with the game of chess), I'll bet you immediately landed on the right answer. The key difference between the checkers and chess is that in checkers the pieces all move in the same way, whereas in chess all the pieced move differently. Thus if you want to excel it the game of chess you have to learn how the each piece moves into your overall plan of attack.

 

The same is true for the game of managing. Mediocre managers play checkers with their people. They assume or hope that their employees will be motivated by the same things, driven by the same goals, desire same kind of relationships, and learn in roughly the same way. When they coach their people, they identify which of these behaviors each employee is struggling with, and then tell the employees to work on these behaviors and practice them until they become habit. They believe that the job of the managers is to mold, or transform each employee into perfect version of the role.

 

Great managers don't, they do the opposite. They know that even if employees are selected against the same set of talents or competencies, such is the complexity of human nature that the differences among these employees will far outweigh the similarities. These are the personality difference. The grand majority of these differenced are enduring and resistance to change. So, given that your most precious resource as a manger is time, by far the most effective way to invest your time is to identify exactly how each employee is different then, as in chess, figure out how you can incorporate these differences into your overall plan of action.

 

Great managing is not about transformation – if you dedicate yourself to transforming each employee into some predetermined perfect version of the role, you will wind up frustration yourself and annoying the employee. Great managing is about release. It is about constantly tweaking, the world so that the unique needs, the unique style of each employee can be given a free rein.  The success of a manager will depend almost entirely on your skill at doing this.

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