Managers - Part XXIV - You're Not Royalty

Lately I've been listening to a podcast about the history of Rome. The last few episodes have been about the early empire period and contrast has been drawn between the emperors who wanted power in order to accomplish something, run things more efficiently, build up the army, building projects, etc, and those who wanted power just so that they could be the guy who could tell everyone else what to do. It got me thinking how people who aspire to management positions could be likened to these two types of leaders in a superficial way. 

I remember when I was a store director for a local grocery store and having a discussion with one of my department managers about holiday scheduling. His position was that once you have attained a certain position you were entitled to certain perks, when it came to holidays, you had earned, due to your position, the best schedule, holidays off, etc. I took a different position. As a leader, you should be leading, and part of leading was being there during the busy times. As Uncle Ben said, with great power comes great responsibility. Now this didn't mean that I scheduled myself all the "bad" shifts, or worked all day, every holiday, but that I led by example. 

Store Directors with whom I worked over the years were all over the map on this. I worked with one boss who worked six 12-hours days and a half day on Sunday, and who never took a holiday off. I knew of other managers who would take every holiday off, leave early on busy days like Christmas Eve or the days before Independence Day or Thanksgiving, leaving it to subordinates to run the show. I tried to take a middle path, spreading out the tough shifts and late nights among not only the "new guys", but requiring that the veterans, including myself would share in the responsibility of covering the store during the busy times. Holidays like Thanksgiving Day or July Fourth, which were fairly slow on the holiday itself, generally saw all the managers working a quarter shift to allow everybody to enjoy at least part of the day. 

Those of you who have slogged through all two dozen of these blog posts know that I don't view "good management" as being "one of the boys" or "doing things" rather than "getting things done" by way of training, supervision and delegation, but that you can't be an effective leader if you are absent.