Submitted by kom77 on
in
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Hi Mike and Mark,
I really appreciate your great work and recommend your podcasts to all my colleagues. But there's a question I've suddenly stuck in while trying to make a kind of classification of manager tools.
What is a manager tool? Obviously there are different ones - like hardware (phone or computer), software (MS Project, Excel, etc.) and.. And all the things you discuss in your podcasts - delegation, one-on-ones, feedback etc. These tools are not "classical" tools which pop up in mind when one hear the word. So people get confused when I say that delegation or mentoring is a tool.
How to define manager tools? I looked through the site and could not find the answer. Hope you can help.
Thanks,
Roman
Standard definitions apply...
Any dictionary will give the first definition of tool as something you use in your hand to aid in the completion of a task. A dictionary will also list an alternate definition as anything used as a means of performing an operation or achieving an end.
Example: One-on-ones are a means of establishing a communication channel that builds trust, which is the foundation of a good relationship.
Does that help?
--Michael
I understand why folks get confused...
...but delegation and one on ones and coaching and feedback ARE all tools. A tool is something external to a person that helps them accomplish a task. Usually a tool is something that someone fashioned.
The fact that our recommended tools are sets of behaviors can make it hard for folks to "understand" them, but surely no one argues that they're not tools.
Further, Mike and I have many more tools to deliver. Many of them are digitally presented, such as our interview creation tool, the retention tool, the performance management tool, the meeting management tool...sorry we haven't had time to deliver them yet, but we promise we will. That said, folks love them, but NONE of them are as powerful as the "tools" we have already delivered, PARTICULARLY the Trinity. These digital tools were what Mike had in his head when we thought of the company, in fact.
But, the fact is, the Trinity are all tools. Perhaps that makes our definition a little broad, but it's really not a stretch. I would ascribe most folks' puzzlement (which I don't think is widespread at all, to be honest), as a function of most folks' total lack of understanding of what management IS.
Hope that helps.
Mark
Tools
There are a lot of tools that many of us use that aren't tools in the sense of a spreadsheet or screwdriver. SWOT, Ishikawa/Cause-Effect, Rumsfeld Box, Porters 5-Forces, DEPICTS/PESTLE, SSADM and many corporate procedures are all tools. As Mark said a tool is something external to one's self that allows you to do something, often solve a problem. The tool guides you through what to do and how to do it. The strength of, say, a Cause-Effect analysis is not the fishbone diagram you end up with, it is the thinking process you have gone through to produce that diagram and identify the cause of the problem.
Stephen
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Skype: stephenbooth_uk | DiSC: 6137
"Start with the customer and work backwards, not with the tools and work forwards" - James Womack
I would by a dictionary
There are so many terms in the podscasts that i rush to look up definitions. Great job all.