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Carol H Tucker
Passionate about knowledge management and organizational development, expert in loan servicing, virtual world denizen and community facilitator, and a DISNEY fan
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Be warned:in this very rich environment where you can immerse yourself so completely, your emotions will become engaged -- and not everyone is cognizant of that. Among the many excellent features of SL, there is no auto-return on hearts, so be wary of where your's wanders...
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Today is the 3rd day of ISO week 26, the 28th day of the 6th month, the 180th day of 2016 [with 179 shopping days until Christmas], and: In 1098 the fighters of the First Crusade defeat Kerbogha of Mosull. In 1846 Adolphe Sax patented the saxophone. In 1859 the first conformation dog show was held in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. In 1894 Labor Day became an official US holiday. In 1902 the US Congress passed the Spooner Act, authorizing then president Theodore Roosevelt to acquire rights from Colombia for the Panama Canal. In 1919 the Treaty of Versailles was signed, ending WWI. In 2007 the American bald eagle was removed from the endangered species list. In 2010 the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that Americans have the right to own a gun for self-defense anywhere they live.
An ongoing debate that I have run across is whether or not you can manage someone without knowing how to do their job. OTOH: the argument is that if a manager does not have a detailed understanding of the ins and outs of the daily work, then how can they assist their direct reports? OTOH: management in and of itself is a specific skill set that is applicable whether or not the manager understands the minutia, and sometimes having a fresh point of view is helpful in identifying processes and/or procedures that don’t work as well as they could or should.
I have been on both sides of this equation. I have answered to individuals that don’t have a good grasp regarding the ins and outs of Loan Servicing – they know the end result and that is good enough for them. Sometimes complete ignorance is preferable than a little knowledge where they don’t’ know what they don’t know and assume that they know everything! In this case, the burden was on me as a direct report to reflect the needs and challenges as well as the accomplishments of my department. If the manager was a good one, then their ability to listen, advise and provide advocacy in the organization overcame their lack of specific “how to” knowledge. And I have been the manager of a department where I did not know the process – it took me about six months before they accepted that I did understand enough to be able to assist them. Having a manager who does know exactly how to do your job can be a bit of a chore as well – sometimes they tend to micro-manage and insist that you do things the way that they would do them and are actually more resistant to new ideas. I have to guard against that tendency anytime that I manage Loan Operations for the simple reason that is my area of expertise and it is hard to step back and let others make the mistakes or do things differently when you are accountable for the outcome.
IMNSHO, my takeaway from asking this question is that the skills of a manager are under-rated, and many organizations are now suffering from an acute lack of execution as a direct result of having eliminated too many of their middle management.
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