Management: The Central Social Function

I am blogging everyday (or nearly everyday) on The Daily Drucker: 366 Days of Insight and Motivation for Getting the Right Things Done.

The action point is to identify the most important nonbusiness institution in my associated with. Does it use a specific yardstick to assess performance. How successful is the organization? I believe an organizations security falls into this category. It’s a red line for most companies which means it sucks up money rather than make it. How do you show value in that?

Within my sphere I use effort points for the work we do. This is effort needed to complete a task as part of our workflow. It’s a team stat and not an individual stat, because people will start sandbagging the numbers to get above anyone they’re compare to. Making it a team stat means everyone is included as a team. I should be watching and correcting for behaviors that affect that number.

For security in general how we are measured is a tough question. If we’re doing our jobs correctly the organization is avoiding the lose of productivity and finances that come with a breach. We have been complimented on the speed with which we respond to security incidents. The security team I’m on we all do very different functions to help keep the company safe. That makes it harder to compare. Individually we have a rating system that most companies use for things like annual reviews. Those are subjective though and again lead to manipulation by people who assign a rating.

Not a great answer. Something I think we’re trying to solve for though.

Hero Or Nero

I am blogging everyday (or nearly everyday) on The Daily Stoic.

I believe today’s stoic is about knowing myself. Do my wants and desires rule me like a tyrant or am I a wise king. I still do things that I don’t understand. Often it’s staying up late into the early hours of the morning. Despite having something early in the morning. I’ve gotten much better about it. Yet, I still do it from time-to-time and I don’t often have a good explanation. Am I getting sucked up into the good feelings that I don’t want things to end? Or is there something from that day still bothering me. Or is it something the next day I’m trying to avoid and in staying up late not allowing a full days rest to tackle that thing. I’ve started to wonder if I like chaos. I strive to be good at my job and improve myself during the day. That can lead to a boring life. The staying up late can sometimes add that little spice or that struggle. I’m curious.

The Function of Management Is to Produce Results

I am blogging everyday (or nearly everyday) on The Daily Drucker: 366 Days of Insight and Motivation for Getting the Right Things Done.

The action point is to answer the question of whether or not the organization is delivering the results it should. If not, articulate the mission. I don’t run an organization just a small piece. I think we are delivering the results we should. We have to meet certain requirements regulations. We also have to make sure we’re doing things in a secure manner. A lot of my job has shifted from doing technical things to making sure our work is organized and that the team is producing results. This can often make it feel like I’m not contributing to the organization. That’s because my team is producing the results and I need to ensure they have what they need and they have the right direction. This means providing feedback and coaching to them. I also have to develop them by delegating some of the things I do.

Anger Is Bad Fuel

I am blogging everyday (or nearly everyday) on The Daily Stoic.

Anger can be a powerful motivations. That’s a trap though. If anger is the fuel then it starts requiring it to get results. I should instead foster fuel that will make me successful without anger. The side effects are too great.

The Spirit of an Organization

I am blogging everyday (or nearly everyday) on The Daily Drucker: 366 Days of Insight and Motivation for Getting the Right Things Done.

The action point is to develop the strengths to help people perform better. I recently had a conversation with my team about the metrics they had produced over the last year. One of the things discussed was that one of my goals each year is to improve the effort by 20%. There was concern that I would force more work. I explained that it was to become more efficient and effective. The team and I were going to get better at doing things which allowed us to take on more.

I can help my team improve by providing feedback to them. Feedback about the positive and negative behaviors they employ in their daily activities. I haven’t been very good at giving it and that’s one of my key areas of improvement. Providing more actionable feedback will help my team become better at what they do.