Yaniv Preiss

Back in the days companies were managing the careers of their employees.

My father, Yitzhak, has been working in the same workplace in the air cargo industry from the 1960’s to his retirement. He was known as a great manager and an expert in his field.

That’s why I wanted to interview him about the traits of good management – how he sees it and what proved to be effective.

He receive management training twice during this time, but most of the art of management came from great managers who mentored him, as well as trying and seeing what worked and what didn’t.
Whatever mix of intuitive leadership skills and deliberate efforts – a good manager never stops learning.

As he had no access to books about the topic, I was quite surprised that he had such breadth of knowledge and experience, also accompanied by examples. A lot of what he mentioned can be found in many books such as Radical Candor, Drive, The Effective Manager, High Output Management, Start with Why and more.

Good management

These are the characteristics of good management, based on his decades-long experience. They are only a summary, and you can think about how you could apply them to your context.

The manager:

🧠 Judgment & Decision-Making

• Uses common sense – what is the reasonable thing to do?
• Has good judgment (which unfortunately often comes from previous bad judgment)
• Makes no random decisions – can always explain the reasoning
• Minimizes multi-tasking, reduces context switches
• Keeps calm in stressful situations
• Has a runbook for problems and situations

📈 Accountability & Performance

• Gives constant feedback to directs
• Demands results from directs – excuses help no one
• Delegates to reduce own workload and develop others
• Explains the “why”, sets goals, lets directs find the ways
• Defaults to getting buy-in for most cases, not dictating without reason
• Punishes liars, slackers and tricksters

🤝 People-Centered Leadership

• Listens to the directs
• Consults the directs, an expert “go to” person
• Treats everyone politely and kindly, from the CEO to the cleaner
• Doesn’t view the direct as an enemy, but as a colleague
• Removes fear (like reporting mistakes) as hiding only brings bad results
• Has the directs’ back, takes ownership and responsibility
• Builds relationships with directs and stakeholders, asks for their advice, is curious about them, and finds common interests
• Uses humor
• Directs come to work smiling and leave smiling

🌱 Growth & Development

• Retains the good people
• Teaches, shares knowledge
• Grows the next generations (training, feedback, coaching, delegation)
• Uses storytelling, metaphors to connect work to each direct’s world

💼 Professionalism & Communication

• Has vast functional knowledge
• Is the voice of the organization to the directs
• Speaks the language of the stakeholders
• Is honest
• Has backbone
• Is self confident at work
• Attentive to requests

These are his good management characteristics, and he acknowledged that it took time to apply, practice, and master all of them. One is not born with all these good management traits and skills. It takes deliberate effort to learn and apply over the years, one day at a time.

These efforts help achieve effectiveness, and nowadays, you’re the one responsible for managing your career. I will end with one of his favorite quotes:

A wise person knows how to avoid situations that a clever person knows how to get out of.