At a conference last weekend I was speaking with a few office managers on the topic of being open to the ideas of staff members when they think of new or better ways of doing things in the office.
This end up being a very interesting conversation as some managers thought they have been placed in the position of manager because they know how things should be done.
As a young manager I remember thinking somewhat the same as these managers and the thought of considering a staff members idea and doing it meant that my managerial skills were lacking.
As I said that was many years ago, and I am sure glad that I do not think that way any more. My staff members are brilliant out of the box thinkers. Without their input our office would not function efficiently as it does.
There is no way that I could think of all of things that should be or could be done differently to take our business to the next level. It takes a team of forward thinkers and everyone being willing to listen and think through the ideas that are presented.
When I realized that I was not a poor manager when I didn’t come up with the new ideas and realized that I would be a bad manager if I did not listen and act on the ideas that my staff had my job not only became easier, but our office functioned so much better.
I now actively enlist all staff members to be idea thinkers. Not only do they come up with great ideas, we learn so much from each other and how we think. We also see how things can be done differently than we would have though up on our own.
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