80. Share what you know

"Share what you know and, more importantly what you imagine with others. Lead them to dis­cover their own truths. The way you live your life is as powerful a teaching for others as what you say to them." Tom Cowan, shamanic practitioner

This Rule is about mentoring people who know less than you. They don't have to know that much less and you don't have to know that much more. But if you share everything you do know then they will know as much as you. Some managers will see this as a threat. They are the foolish ones. What you have just done is train up someone to take some of the workload from your shoulders. Someone to replace you when you get promoted.

Some managers feel awkward about sharing because they feel they don't know enough. But when you learned English at school it was enough that your teacher knew about grammar and clauses and punctuation and that sort of stuff. You didn't need an award-winning novelist or a Nobel prize winner. No, just a humble English teacher was enough.

Sharing with colleagues is important too. The more you give out the more you'll get back. Suppose you give one bit of information to 20 other managers. If only half of them are generous enough to return the favour it means you now have 10 bits of new infor­mation to add to your collection. They have only gained by one but you have gained by 10 - brilliantly easy They will invariably share with you, but not each other - don't ask me why. Perhaps they feel indebted to you and not to them.

81. Don't intimidate

"In order to keep a true perspective of one's importance, everyone should have a dog that will worship him and a cat that will ignore him." Dereke Bruce

Being a manager gives you authority and power, no doubt about that. Perhaps that's what separates good managers like you from rubbish ones. You know how to handle that power and you don't abuse it.

People will look up to you as a manager, respect you and even fear you. You have the power of unemployment or work over them and they will be aware of that in all their dealings with you. But you have to try and overcome that by getting them to trust you. Always be predictable so that they know where they are with you at all times and you don't frighten them by taking them unawares. You mustn't abuse your position by intimidating your team.

Yes, there are two ways of getting things done - fear and reward -and a lot of managers choose the first because they feel under-confident, unsure and uncertain. Unlike you they aren't at ease with themselves and this shows up in a threatening or bullying attitude towards their staff. We ought to pity them - or, if we work under such a boss ourselves, try and get them better trained. Perhaps leave a copy of this book lying around for them to stumble on accidentally?

A lot of managers don't know that their attitude sets the standard for how their staff treat each other and their customers. If they see a manager who is kind and co-operative, rewarding to work for and confident, it rubs off and they, in turn, act the same way towards each other and towards customers as well.

Working this way makes life easier and more productive. It's so much better to work in an organization where reward is used instead of fear to get things done.