Leading executives, managers, and experts from SMBs and large enterprises share their insights and perspectives with bMighty on a host of IT issues, challenges, and opportunities that small and midsize businesses face.
Scratch the surface of any successful company and you'll find a good manager who knows how to inspire employees to reach their full potential. Management guru Scott Berkun explains how self-awareness and treating employees like people separates good managers from bad.
Take a hard look at any successful business and you'll find good management. But what is it that makes a good manager? bMighty turned to management guru Scott Berkun for the answer. Berkun worked as a manager at Microsoft for nine years until 2003 and has since devoted himself -- on his blog, through his lectures and essays, and in his books, The Myths of Innovation and Making Things Happen -- to developing theories of good management. According to Berkun, a good manager knows how to not only manage their employees but also inspire them to reach the heights of their creative potential. To do that, managers need to remember that all projects are made of people, people need to be understood, and, above all, managers need to be sure they practice what they preach.
bMighty: How can managers encourage creative thinking?
Scott Berkun: Trusting people, allowing them to make mistakes as long as they learn from them. It's really quite simple when you see it done, but it's so rare, and against the punitive, perfection-obsessed mindset we're taught in America to put out faith in. Easy trick: take 4% of your annual budget. Every quarter, give 1% of your budget to the person with the most creative idea, as chosen by your team, to make a prototype. Can't afford 4%? Then do it with time. Give the winner a week, or a day off, to make that prototype. Can't afford a day a quarter? Then you can not afford creativity -- it is out of your managerial price range and it's time for you to change your budget, or stop pretending you care about creativity.
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