{"id":2856,"date":"2019-03-28T01:00:03","date_gmt":"2019-03-28T06:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/?p=2856"},"modified":"2019-03-28T04:33:55","modified_gmt":"2019-03-28T09:33:55","slug":"the-built-in-excuses-of-the-hands-off-manager","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/2019\/03\/the-built-in-excuses-of-the-hands-off-manager\/","title":{"rendered":"The Built-In Excuses of the Hands-Off Manager"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">by Dwayne Phillips<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Don&#8217;t like micro managers? Who does? Beware, however, the built-in excuses of the hands-off manager.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;I give you a task. I expect it to be done.&#8221;\u2014the charge of the hands-off manager.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Who wouldn&#8217;t want to work for the person above? Freedom to use my own judgement and do what I think is right. Wow!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Beware, however, the built-in excuses contained in the above. Remember the conversation between Alice and the Chesire Cat (Lewis Carroll&#8217;s Alice&#8217;s Adventures in Wonderland):<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?&#8221;<br>\n&#8220;That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,&#8221; said the Cat.<br>\n&#8220;I don&#8217;t much care where\u2014&#8221; said Alice.<br>\n&#8220;Then it doesn&#8217;t matter which way you go,&#8221; said the Cat.<br>\n&#8220;\u2014so long as I get SOMEWHERE,&#8221; Alice added as an explanation.<br>\n&#8220;Oh, you&#8217;re sure to do that,&#8221; said the Cat, &#8220;if you only walk long enough.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Something from Somewhere may arise. Now the hands-off manager can exclaim, &#8220;What is this? What did you do? This is wrong? You have gone down the wrong path to the wrong Somewhere.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When the hands-off manager gives a task without any details and &#8220;expects&#8221; it to be done, that manager is saying &#8220;I don&#8217;t much care where I want to get to. But I reserve the right to proclaim any destination as incorrect.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Once the wrong destination arrives, the hands-off manager proclaims, &#8220;I expected you to do this right. I don&#8217;t have the time to manage this. You&#8217;re supposed to do this.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The hands-off manager is assuming the role of Alice. The way to go is unknown, but the manager can judge the destination in any way on any day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Don&#8217;t want to fall into this trap? Ask questions. Pull answers\u2014in writing if possible. Don&#8217;t like to do this? Try to find another manager.<br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Dwayne Phillips Don&#8217;t like micro managers? Who does? Beware, however, the built-in excuses of the hands-off manager. &#8220;I give you a task. I expect it to be done.&#8221;\u2014the charge of the hands-off manager. Who wouldn&#8217;t want to work for the person above? Freedom to use my own judgement and do what I think is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,63,9],"tags":[348,183,132],"class_list":["post-2856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-communication","category-expectations","category-management","tag-commuication","tag-expectations","tag-management"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2856"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2856\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2868,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2856\/revisions\/2868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}