When writing my recent article, "5 Managerial Skills for becoming a great boss", I was reminded of a great learning experience I had some years ago. I had just been appointed as Senior Manager Policy and Planning for a large regional bank in Australia. The role required our team to work with other departments to ensure their policies were practical, worked well, and were in line with the bank's values. Additionally, we were tasked with researching and recommending new policies that would improve the bank's efficiency, particularly in regard to its people management.
It's this latter task, that at first really challenged me. Whenever I would recommend a new policy at the regular senior team meeting, one of my colleagues would put a counter argument. Over the first few months, our discussions became almost personal and I dreaded recommending anything new.
I ruminated on this for a while and then hit upon a solution.
Prior to the senior team meeting, I went to Jerry (the manager who was always putting my new recommendations down) and said, "Jerry, I'm considering putting up this idea at the next meeting - shoot some holes in it for me please". This approach gave Jerry the opportunity to put his point, consider mine and then work with me to put forward a sound recommendation.
Voilà! When I presented my new proposal at the next senior team meeting, who was my greatest supporter? Yep, Jerry.
This story relates to one of the 5 essentials skills I mention in my article. When you have a moment, check them out and let me know what you think.