The footsteps to being a Successful Manager for YPMA

I’ll say that this is the edited version of my address to the YPMA members at their annual retreat in Iganga on January 06, 2017.

About YPMA

The purpose of YPMA is to fast-track the acquisition and development of management skills among aspiring young managers. The idea was mooted by people I had closely worked with and who felt that they could learn from my personal experience given that I taught, practiced and wrote about management. They were also aware of the different management challenges that I had gone through and was going through now and again. They were curious to how I managed and survived. There were big guns that always appeared to want to take me out. They thought that they needed not wait to experience it. But that I could share what I had gone through and also bring them friends who either had similar experiences or knowledge to share with them too.

YPMA success

I noted that from this association, we now had a Permanent Secretary and a Vice Chancellor besides many other people who had ether risen or excelled probably partly as a result of the interaction in the group. I also mentioned that it was not only for serious management work but also took off time to have fun through travel and sports. 

What or why management

I told them management was about bringing resources together to achieve organisational goals. A manager uses people, a very important resource to achieve goals. However, I said that in my experience, many people didn’t know why they joined an organisation, hence the typical answer why people join an organisation is to earn a living. I said this answer is misleading. When you join an organisation, you do so to contribute to the achievement of the goals of that organisation. As you do, you are paid and the payment is a reward that enables you to achieve your personal goals. Many people complained about adequacy of salary without thinking of what they contributed to the organisation.

Work is not about money. Work is about achievement of the set goals of an organisation. Whenever you think about work in terms of money, you may actually end up simply stealing the money and not working. 

While at work, there are two key issues which determine your success. These are: One, performing the task assigned thus getting the results. Two, relating to the people you work with. The key thing in this working environment is this relationship. Most people are recruited into jobs because they have some knowledge either through education and training or through experience. Take an accountant for instance, his job is to prepare the accounts, interpret them and advise other managers. But how he relates to others in the organisation determines not only his effectiveness but also, how he is successful as an accountant.

A successful manager is one who understands and manages interpersonal relationships. Infact this is more important than the actual knowledge of the task to be performed because without harmony in the institution, there is no production. There are no results. There are only a few examples of such people who have become successful without taking care of the feelings of their employees or colleagues. Such managers are good dictators. 

The success in managing interpersonal relationship comes out of the success of managing one’s ego. Ego is said to be somebody’s self-worth. What a person feels is his or her value. What a person feels is his importance in society. Some people think they’re worth more but they actually aren’t. This gives them a feeling of unwarranted importance and hence a huge ego. This naturally leads to arrogance. Huge ego and arrogance make other people feel inferior and this automatically leads to superiority and inferiority complexes and most likely detest and conflict. Under such conditions, the organisations productivity is low. The manager is ineffective.

It is important that managers are able to understand their self-worth so that they are able to control their egos. Controlling ego makes people humble and appreciate others. When you appreciate others, you create conditions that lead to working together successfully achieving both organisational and individual objectives. 

 But to be an excellent manager, you personally must aim high. You must aim at being the best. It’s not easy to be the best. It’s hard work seeking knowledge and perfecting skills. But remember while you want to be the tallest tree in the forest, there are always trees taller than you. There are always people better than you. But work as if there is no other better person.