Is Management Personal?

A quick browse in any bookshop today will show you titles such as Managing from the Soul, Managing from the Heart, Principled centered Leadership, etc. There are many more other titles that are more 'brutal' AND business-like such as Performance for 21st Century,Business Strategy for the New Age etc. However, even the latter titles tend to devote chapter after chapter of discussion that deals with the 'personal' aspect of management. They may come under various titles and buzz-words but in essence they all relate to the core (but often mis-understood) issue of the role of 'self' in management.

What I term as 'self' in management is about 'being who we are while we do what we do'. In this case who am I when I am managing? Who am I when I am supervising? Who am I when I am leading a team? Who am I when I am managing a project. The who am I question, as you would have guessed by now, is practically endless.

It is of great importance to remember that our world view (which is a result of who we are) colours what we do and how we do it. More importantly it influences what we think and why we think so. Say for example an employee comes to your room with shoulders hunched and with a 'lack of sleep' appearance and tells you that he needs to go back immediately as there is a family emergency. Your first instinct (which is usually correct) is not to trust him as something tells you that there is no family emergency. Now comes the interesting part; what you do next is an indication of who you are while you do what you do after listening to the so called family emergency. If you tell him off to get back to work, it shows who you are being at that moment. If you listen to him and find out later that there is more to his story although there is no family emergency, also shows who you are being while you are doing what you are doing.

Is there a right and wrong in the above example? I think not. Only what works.
Is management personal? I know it is. The real question is do we dare to make it personal or rather do we have the skills to make it personal and yet be effective managers and leaders.

I know for sure though that today, it takes more than an MBA to rule the corporate office. It needs a big heart too. I know as I have been there.