Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do, and they will surprise you with their ingenuity. — Geogre Patton
My Take – The way I say it – Don’t tell me how to suck eggs, just show me the eggs and tell me they need sucking.
Leadership is developing people to the point that once a problem is recognized, they know how to take responsibility for it and fix it on their own. Management is identifying the problem, telling your people how to solve it, then watching them to make sure they follow directions. People crave leadership; they resent management.
DaddyBear’s Den 
Bob S.
/ November 8, 2012If you are going to detail how to solve a problem, why not just go ahead and solve it yourself, eh?
I work for a person who will tell me to solve a problem, be presented with my solution and the proceed to explain how he wants it done – in fine detail, what he wants said, etc.
Then he complains when no one takes initiative to solve problems. Gee you think there is a reason Sparky?
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Wing and a Whim
/ November 8, 2012Patton’s advice works only if you’re starting with trained, competent people. I cannot expect someone who can’t do basic math without a calculator to reliably get precise quantities of items, nor expect someone who’s never been acquainted with a work ethic to pay close attention to details. On the other hand, if they are both trained and competent, this approach works wonders. It’s awesome when your team can tell you “Oh, yeah, this Big Huge Problem came up, but you were busy, so we just handled it.”
Unfortunately, I’m stuck in the developing people phase right now, which sure looks a lot like management to them. My regular hands know what they are doing, and I love them for their ability to take a problem and run with it while I’m mired in teaching new hires how to follow directions and what the parameters for “good judgement” actually are.
Soon, I will get to the lovely hair-greying point where my bulk of new hires think they understand the system well enough to get creative about how they use it… but have not yet achieved the system understanding to realize why their reinvention of the wheel breaks things badly.
I understand the temptation to micromanage when they hit that point, to prevent problems – but I have neither time nor temperament to micromanage. Instead, I end up triaging them into competent on their own, competent with oversight, and people to let go. The first will end up helping the second, who will rise to expectations, and the third will be winnowed out. And those who remain will be told the challenges of the day, the area I want them to concentrate on, and to work hard and have fun.
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daddybear71
/ November 8, 2012True, Patton assumed a basic level of competence, but then, by the time they got to him, they were through with training and even had a little OJT.
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