The job of a manager is not to control people. And it’s not to cut costs. It’s to set up an environment that allows people to do their best. By environment, I don’t mean cushy chairs, beautiful artwork, free food and foosball – though that may be part of it. I mean the right job descriptions, proper training, reporting structures and monitoring that are useful rather than frustrating. Useful in doing what the company is supposed to do – provide value to the customer.

Read this article by Joel Spolsky. Ignore the techno babble (it’s written for programmers) but concentrate on how it shows what managers did to make it impossible for employees to do a good job. The managers didn’t try to do this – it happened because they were trying to do something else (cut costs or control people) and didn’t know what their job was.

Takeaways:

• The manager works by designing systems that support employees to do a good job for the customer.