Most men, despite the fact that nature has freed them from the driving of others for a long time, remain with pleasure under it throughout their lives… So it is very easy for others to become guardians.
It is so comfortable to be a minor! If I have a book that thinks for me, a pastor who replaces my moral conscience, a doctor who judges about my diet, and so on, I won't need my own effort.
Just being able to pay, I have no need to think: someone else will take my place on such an annoying task…Most men consider the coming of age very dangerous…
The truth is that this risk is not so great, because after some falls they would have learned to walk; but the examples of these accidents usually produce shyness and fright, and keep away any further attempt to redo such an experience…
For this reason, there are only a few who, by the effort of their own spirit, manage to get out of the minority and still walk with sure steps. »
E. Kant.
What differentiates a good manager from a not so good one? What are the competences that add value to the management of a manager within an organization? When can we affirm that we have all the conditions to adequately perform managerial work?
These and other questions pass through the minds of those who have the responsibility of selecting the executive personnel of an organization or assigning responsibility to one of the members of the work team.
From the perspective of the philosopher E. Kant we could answer: when they come of age. But getting to it has implications that are worth pondering.
Being a manager is not only a title awarded, it is a lived experience in each of the decisions and actions that involve the day to day within the organization.
Most people reach managerial positions after having lived in the shadow of other managers and having been intellectually trained to carry out the position.
Internally, a series of reflections began to develop that were criteria that lead to autonomy, that is, the ability to act based on their own understanding and assuming the consequences of their own actions.
Many managers fear making decisions on their own, they are afraid of making mistakes and therefore they resort to superior managers, administrative theories and consulting with their peers, in such a way that if the results are not as expected they do not feel that they are entirely responsible and they favor the possibility of winning the applause if things go well.
Coming of age in management processes implies recognizing how we carry out our management, what is the autonomy that I effectively have to make decisions, execute budgets, assign personnel, negotiate alternatives, etc… or if, on the contrary, we recognize a tutor who guides us and guides and does not allow us to make mistakes in our management.
Here there are many questions about the way we carry out our work, about its evolution and evaluation.
Have we been growing as managers since we came to office? Do we recognize the limits of our management? How far are we autonomous? And do we make use of that autonomy?
Management, then, is a dynamic process that forces us to understand the responsibility we acquire when we accept the position, it generates opportunities but all within the limits of autonomy.
As S. Covey points out in his first principle, being proactive is discovering that we can make things happen, not just waiting for them to happen and then acting on it, it is anticipating the facts, not just responding to them.
As E. Kant announces, it is precisely fear that sometimes prevents us from growing, frightens us out of our comfort zone and we wait for someone to tell us what to do.
I invite you then to reflect on our managerial processes, those that we live as managers in our company, or as managers of our family, or managers in the different spaces and responsibilities in which we interact daily, to verify if we are indeed moving towards autonomy or continue hoping every day that our boss, the code, the tarot or any other tutor tells us what to do.
