One of the hallmarks of a good manager is the ability to empower the success of her or his people. This morning, I’ve been thinking about one of the best managers for whom I’ve had the privilege to work. In my career, I’ve been incredibly fortunate to work for some amazing managers, and they all keep raising the bar on each other.
This was during my time at Weirton Steel, and I worked for a guy named George. He is truly one of the best managers for whom I’ve ever worked. We were having a hell of a time with our Novell file servers. This was the big iron of the time that ran a big chunk of the company. And this thing was going up and down like a yo yo. Nobody was quite sure if it was hardware or software. George brought in engineers from our vendor that specialized in Novell and Compaq hardware. We had a ton of Novell expertise on staff as well. This should have been fixed in short order, but the problems persisted a few days.
In times of crisis, George was the one remain incredibly calm. When people started raising their voices, he would speak up and quiet people down. I recall him buying lunch for his staff during this, which allowed his people to keep working. What really impressed me through this whole crisis was not how he handled his staff, but how he handled upper management. George strategically placed himself in the corner of the data center, not only to watch from a bit of a distance, but for a much greater purpose. When a member of upper management would come into the data center, he would intercept them and usher them right back out. I recall hearing him tell the IT director that the last thing his staff needed was someone from upper management asking for a status report. He played interference for his team, making sure they could keep working.
George taught me a lot. And to this day, I won’t walk into a data center with a beverage in my hands. That was forbidden in his data centers, and that’s how it should be.