I was listening to an interview with a CEO and he was discussing the weight they put on the interviewing process. One of the questions he asked potential managers was what their management philosophy was. I had to think for a minute how I might answer that. It would be something like this:
- Treat management of your group like a democracy. Everyone gets to participate.
- Properly incentivize your teammates so that their efforts are focused on the correct goals.
- Encourage your teammates to take risks. Improvement can’t happen without risk. And understand that they will make mistakes and that you can’t come down too hard on them for it.
I would probably leave it at that. Nice and simple.