What REALLY Comes With Being A Manager

I'm always blown away by, like, cult leaders or, you know, people, even politicians that get people to believe a certain narrative that isn't true doesn't benefit the person. And at the end of the day, we can't get our people to show up on time. Like, there is. There is a degree of psychology.

An understanding of human behavior that you have to have in order to create a culture where people are working, they're enthusiastic about the problem that we're trying to solve in the marketplace, the value we're trying to add as a company into the marketplace. And so don't you think it's a little naive to think that we don't need those tools?

I think it is a little bit shortsighted, and it might be naive. And it also might be, you know, a problem or something that's brought up where I say, well, what is the solution then? I mean, if you view work as just this necessary evil where the best way to handle it is just, you know, to be very transactional for eight hours a day, I don't think that leads to a very pleasant society. And so, yeah, sure, if we could create this utopia where work didn't exist, you know, then maybe you'd look at organizational psychology and say, what's the point? I don't see that world happening, and I don't know if it's that desirable anyway. And so the reality is we have plenty of evidence that shows that work can be this fulfilling place and that can give employees a lasting sense of satisfaction, a lasting sense of meaningfulness. And that correlates strongly with life satisfaction. You know, for much of us, because of how much of our lives happen at work, if we're happy at work, we tend to be pretty happy at life. And so if we're. If we're going to have to work, which most of us do, and we know how. How work can be made meaningful, then I think this is something that we. That we ought to share. I think it's important to say, like, the meaningfulness and satisfaction of work that I'm talking about doesn't happen by default. Like work just sitting there in and of itself. I don't know that that leads to satisfaction and meaningfulness for everyone. What we do know is leaders and organizations can imbue work with purpose, meaning, and be a source of contentment for employees. And so I think that's where organizational psychology can come in, is, you know, leaders and managers are busy, and in the midst of firefighting, in the midst of the extreme job demands they have, they Sometimes make bad decisions and sometimes lose sight of some of the understanding that we have in organizational psychology. And. And so the point is just going back to the toolbox that we've been talking about is to make sure they have access to the tools to design work in a way that helps people live better lives.

I had an experience years ago that was very profound for me. Do you know the actor George Hamilton? Older actor, early Hollywood, always tan, very tan. I think the legend was he would just go to LAX and say, where's it sunny today? And he would just fly there.

Probably back in the days when the airplane tickets were like, you know, three copies and he had to press hard. But I read an article that he wrote in Esquire magazine once, and I ended up years later, I was in a. In a clothing store and he was there. And I said, oh, Mr. Hamilton, I read an article in Esquire that I thought was incredible, and I've used it. And he said, oh, what was that? And I said, well, you talked about how when you go to a city, you'll find the best restaurant or a restaurant that you really like, and then you'll go to the maitre d and you'll tell the maitre d, like, here, I want you to take my card. Whenever I come in here for dinner with friends, I never want to see a bill. Just add 20% to as a tip. But I never want to see a bill. I'm just going to stand up and leave. And so the effect that that has is you're taking people out to dinner. There's never that awkward who's going to pay, you know, and. Because what I would usually do is I would sneak away and hand them the. The card. And so. But at the end of it, he said, you know, I learned that from. And he said, like the head of Warner Brothers or somebody. And he said, because really, what it is about. And he kind of summarized it, and he said, why would you ever go to dinner with somebody you wouldn't pay for? And I think the same thing about work is, like, people, you know, being a kid growing up, people would say, oh, it's just business. Or, you know, it's business. And I always thought, like, I'm killing myself here. How is this just business? Like, in, you know, as I have evolved, I wouldn't have somebody working for me that I wouldn't take to dinner or consider a friend. And so this idea that we spend all this time at work, but it's just business, really, most of the time is an excuse for hey, I didn't tell you where you were messing up, I didn't coach you, but you're fired. And it's just business. And it's poor leadership to me.

In many ways. And I know in what people would like to term the corporate world is, well, I don't want to get to like somebody and then have them not work out. But I think you're a better leader of people are quitting on you and saying like, hey, I just can't do what you're asking me to do. I'm, you know, the right seat on the bus sort of thing instead of it being personal in this adversarial thing. And so it forces you as a leader to be more involved, to be clearer about our intentions. But to say it's just business usually means there's some surprise coming that you know.

Isn'T going to be the best for anybody.

You know, the part of that point is like management or leadership is about relationships. And sure, it's about leading a team to higher results, but a lot of it is about one on one relationships with your subordinates. And so much of your relationship with those individuals affects how they feel about how their day went and how their job is overall. It's not the only thing, but it's a big thing. And so if you're uninterested in creating positive relationships, relationships with the people who work for you, who work next to you, you know, I would say you're, you're probably a misfit for the management or leader profession. And I also think it's, it's a little bit lazy is the word I would use for it as well. And a lot of people want to move up into the managerial ranks and that's fantastic. But you're not signing up to be a powerful individual. You're not signing up for it, you know, to be an individual contributor. You're signing up to be a relationship builder and a person who figures out what it is that makes each individual on your team thrive. And chances are it's not going to be the same thing for every individual. And so, yeah, I think that's a great point to point out that this is, you know, we're in the business of relationships here and if you don't want to do that, there's plenty of individual contributor roles that are probably well suited for you.

Thanks so much for watching this clip of Service Driver Revolution. We're uploading new stuff every day, so make sure you subscribe and click the bell icon so you don't miss out. If you have a question you'd like us to answer on the show, call 8333, ask SDR and we'll answer your question on the show. That's 8333 asksDR. For special deals on our books and training, head over to to offers.chriscollinsinc.com now that's offers.chriscollinsInc.com I'm Chris Collins, and I'll see you in the next video.