The Rules Of Management (Pioneer Panel's Library) by Richard Templar Page B

be the wrong decision. Well, sometimes out of big mistakes something bright and shiny and magical appears, and we land on our feet with a tra-la and manage to look good despite sometimes not knowing what we were doing. This is the magic manager that I want you to be. The instinctive manager around whom anything can happen—and will. If you want to sit on a fence, go find another book to read.
    Now I’m not saying here that you should make rash, ill-thought-through decisions. I’m assuming as a good manager that if it’s that kind of decision, you have looked at the evidence before you and evaluated it, maybe asked for views from others. It’s that point in the process I’m talking about—the point where you are tempted to shy away from the decision, in case it turns out to be the wrong one.
    This is about courage. The courage to be wrong sometimes. The courage to take a risk. The courage to be scared in a good way. (Sitting on a fence because you are scared is a lot different from taking a big decision and being scared but exhilarated.)
    All you have to do is look at the facts, evaluate them, ask advice, listen to your intuition and then do it—make the decision. Be dynamic, be bold.
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    BETTER TO JUMP AND MAKE A MISTAKE THAN TO SIT THERE TOO FRIGHTENED TO MAKE A MOVE.
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Chapter 66. Adopt Minimalism as a Management Style

    Minimalism means not issuing lengthy reports. It means not issuing memos every 20 minutes. It means keeping rules to the minimum * and letting people get on with their jobs. It means mission statements that make sense, are clear and easy to understand and are simple. It means management where managers use professionals and let them get on with their tasks in peace and quiet. It means managers who are secure in themselves and don’t need to score points, bully, or interfere.
    * No, not these Rules, I mean the petty ones—you have to wear a tie, you have to have one doughnut, not two at coffee time, you have to address senior management as Mr./Mrs. X and not use their first names, you have to park within the lines, you have to wear sensible shoes, you have to...you know what I mean.
    Minimalist management is all about getting more by doing less. Yes, sure you have to be the boss, but it’s more like steering a big ship—the tiniest touch of the wheel is enough. You swing that wheel violently from side to side and you’re off course in an instant.
    There is an old Chinese saying: “Govern a country the same way you cook small fish,” that is, don’t keep fiddling with them or they fall apart. Manage a department, team, or company in pretty much the same way—gently, discreetly, unobtrusively. Better to be understated than too obvious.
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    MINIMALIST MANAGEMENT IS ALL ABOUT GETTING MORE BY DOING LESS.
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Chapter 67. Visualize Your Plaque

    When you write your bestseller and then die you will get a plaque on the building where you were born, or lived, or wrote the damn thing—just so long as it was in London. * When I say “you” I don’t mean you, I mean whoever it is that lives there after you’ve croaked. This plaque is there to commemorate the fact that you did a good thing while you were alive. If you didn’t do your good thing—that is, write your bestseller, add to the sum of human literacy, manage to afford to live in London—you don’t get a plaque.
    * I’m fairly certain you have to be dead, but you don’t have to have written anything. Being a musician is good enough—even Jimi Hendrix got one.
    Now imagine that there is a plaque for management style and it’s not limited to London. What would you get yours for? Would you in fact get one? Basically, how would you like to be remembered? I worked for a boss once whose style of management was quaint to say the least. As he came in each day he would blast the first person he saw, give them a complete thrashing for whatever they happened to be doing. Then he would go to his office and have coffee for half an