Be Aware of Your Responsibilities and Stick to Your Principles

Rule 96

“Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.

Albert Schweitzer

As a manager you have a responsibility to people in your team. You must make sure they don’t come to harm while they are in your care. You have to make sure they are sale, healthy, cared for, well fed and watered, comfortable, kept well away from hazardous substances and equipment, and that they wear suitable safety clothing if necessary.

Now you also have a responsibility to the environment in much the same way. You mustn’t do anything that is going to do harm, cause lasting damage , put anymore at risk of health or life, cause any land to be utilized in a worse way than it was before you came along. You don’t have to be an eco-warrior but you do have a responsibility not to cause harm or damage. Can you put your hand on your heart and say your managerial role is ‘clean’?

You have to have some principles – that you won’t cause harm or damage. There has to be a line drawn – by you – somewhere, beyond which you will not go. You have to give something back. You have to be aware of what is going on around you. You have to be aware of what your industry contributes – or takes – from the environment. This isn’t stuff from the fairies or the hippies or the karmic religionist – this is real stuff. The more you put in, the more you get out. Be good and sleep nights. It’s not a bad philosophy to live by and to manage with.

“Managing Yourself
The rules of Management by Richard Templar”

Photo by Microsoft

Go Home

Rule 71

“ Many managers follow the notion of busy fools and confuse hard work with long hours. They think because they work 15-hour days and forget their children’s names, they must be bloody good managers. The best sales manager I worked with never once worked beyond 5.30 pm.”

Caspian Woods, from Acorns – How to build your brilliant from scratch.


Another manager I worked with stayed late, got in early, skipped lunch and kept his head down and grafted every second he was there. Guess who got promoted over him? Yep, Bob again from Rule 70 Mr. Cool Dude.

One’s of Bob’s favourite lines, to me anyway, was, ‘Go Home, Rich, go home. You’ve got a young family, go home and see them before they forget what you look like. Either that or send them a photo before they rally forget. ‘Naturally I went home. As did Bob, a lot. In fact he was at work so little he got promoted again. His secret? His team, of which I was one, would have done anything for him. We went that extra mile. We would never have willingly let him down. Bob inspired loyalty in his staff in a way I’ve rarely seen since. He made all of us feel grown-up, trusted, treated in a respectful way. He never shouted, abused, put upon, demanded, overworked, humiliated his team. I never saw him have to discipline anyone, ever. He was charismatic and charming, cool and relaxed. He cooked us all like small fish.

He said his secret was his family. For them he worked. He adored his children and would rather have been home with them than working. His love for them showed and he wore the badge of happy family man with great pride. He talked a lot about his kids and his wife and was obviously very happy with them.

He never stayed late because that would have been disloyal to his number-one priority – his family. This gave him great depth. He was well rounded and balanced. He was at ease with himself . He had nothing to prove at work because he was content at home. I’ve worked with some complete bastards and I can say the only thing they all had in common was bad home life. Their base camp was corrupt and it showed. So, my dear friend, go home.

“Managing Yourself
The rules of Management by Richard Templar”

Photo by Microsoft