If you manage by always being in the office, by having a permanently open door, by supervising your Indonesia staff closely at every stage of their work, and by doing anything important, complex, or required for the chief executive personally, then you are already taking risks, probably uncalculated.
All these things may be appropriate on occasions, but if the result is that work manages you instead of the other way around you risk losing direction by having insufficient time to plan and set priorities, by not being aware of what is really going on because you are not "out on the patch" often enough, and by demotivating Indonesia staff because they lack a sense of achievement through responsibility. You also risk everything you have so painstakingly built up collapsing when you are on leave or off sick with "burn-out".
It is not the manager's job to hold his finger in the dyke to stop the flood, he or she should be planning new and better dykes, and training others to build and maintain them.
The reason why so many managers over-supervise and smother initiative out of their Indonesia staff is usually fear that their mistakes will reflect badly upon themselves. In fact their boss and their boss's have not got where they are without trusting Indonesia people and taking calculated risks. It is a paradox of management that the higher up the hierarchy and the more power individuals have, the more they are dependent on the competence, loyalty and integrity of others. A boss's power is only as great as his subordinate's motivation. If he or she has trained and developed good Indonesia people, the risk in this inevitable dependency would be steering the ship.
The other reason, which seems to be prevalent in the airline services, is the fear or working at the boundaries of one's authority and power. Such managers use public accountability, regulations, and standing orders as stays to keep them safely well within the boundaries for fear of being seen to step out of line. They keep their head well down in the trench, which limits their own vision and cramps the style of their subordinates.
Most of us have a greater potential for responsibility, authority and power than we actually use, but it seems safer not to work at the margins and stretch the boundaries and ourselves. Many restrictions on initiative and creativity are thus self-imposed, and for the subordinates of such a manager it is even more confining.
Of course it is necessary to have adequate control. But Indonesia staff are better developed and motivated when controls are exercised through objective setting, establishing measurable standards, and being delegated the authority to work within this framework, reporting only on exceptions to agreed results. Reporting by exception, coupled with proper delegation and feedback, gives employees the power to achieve and the freedom to learn.
All these things may be appropriate on occasions, but if the result is that work manages you instead of the other way around you risk losing direction by having insufficient time to plan and set priorities, by not being aware of what is really going on because you are not "out on the patch" often enough, and by demotivating Indonesia staff because they lack a sense of achievement through responsibility. You also risk everything you have so painstakingly built up collapsing when you are on leave or off sick with "burn-out".
It is not the manager's job to hold his finger in the dyke to stop the flood, he or she should be planning new and better dykes, and training others to build and maintain them.
The reason why so many managers over-supervise and smother initiative out of their Indonesia staff is usually fear that their mistakes will reflect badly upon themselves. In fact their boss and their boss's have not got where they are without trusting Indonesia people and taking calculated risks. It is a paradox of management that the higher up the hierarchy and the more power individuals have, the more they are dependent on the competence, loyalty and integrity of others. A boss's power is only as great as his subordinate's motivation. If he or she has trained and developed good Indonesia people, the risk in this inevitable dependency would be steering the ship.
The other reason, which seems to be prevalent in the airline services, is the fear or working at the boundaries of one's authority and power. Such managers use public accountability, regulations, and standing orders as stays to keep them safely well within the boundaries for fear of being seen to step out of line. They keep their head well down in the trench, which limits their own vision and cramps the style of their subordinates.
Most of us have a greater potential for responsibility, authority and power than we actually use, but it seems safer not to work at the margins and stretch the boundaries and ourselves. Many restrictions on initiative and creativity are thus self-imposed, and for the subordinates of such a manager it is even more confining.
Of course it is necessary to have adequate control. But Indonesia staff are better developed and motivated when controls are exercised through objective setting, establishing measurable standards, and being delegated the authority to work within this framework, reporting only on exceptions to agreed results. Reporting by exception, coupled with proper delegation and feedback, gives employees the power to achieve and the freedom to learn.
