SmartBrief editor Jesse Stanchak recently attended the SXSW Interactive Festival, where he had a chance to speak with T.A. McCann, vice president of research and development at Research in Motion and the CEO and founder of Gist. McCann spoke about how letting go is key to effectively managing others and why it’s important to let your team to take charge of their own responsibilities.
Some of his points:
- Make everyone the CEO of their own area. Give your team the freedom to take charge of their own ideas and expertise. Your role as manager is to provide the resources and support to make sure things are getting things done.
- It’s all about freedom with responsibility. It doesn’t matter when, how or what your employees will do to get something done. What matters is that they meet the deadlines when they’re set. “It’s not, ‘I’m gonna tell you what to do,’ ” McCann says. “It’s, ‘You’re gonna tell me what you’re gonna do.’ “
- Build an organizational system from the bottom up. Instead of enforcing your own organizational standards on your employees, allow them to work together to create a system that works based on their own needs. “Let the system evolve in an agile way — not a top down sort of way,” McCann says.
For more of McCann’s interview and for information on the tools he uses to keep himself organized, view the video below:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2zIIM78sH0[/embed]