NBC’s popular television show The Office is the subject of workplace humor and no doubt lots of jokes and laughs around water coolers across the country. Since the shows debut in 2005 and up until last year Michael Scott (played by Steve Carell) served as the Regional Manager for a sales office in a fictional paper company. Michael’s character was involved in weekly mishaps in management, that most of the time are totally off the wall or inappropriate.
When it comes to Michael’s management style, there are far more blogs recounting the humorous disasters and problems associated with his approach. Many people can relate in some way to the craziness of what goes on at work, which make the show so popular. Sure it is easy to come up with a list of “don’ts” from material in The Office. I asked myself the question, “What can we learn and emulate from Michael’s Scott’s management style”? Here are three take-aways:
1) Find Ways to Make Work Fun
There was never a dull moment around The Office with Michael’s antics. He looked for ways to make a mundane workday fun and exciting. There were examples of Office Awards, called the “Dundies”, or a team retreat with a Survivor Theme or just simple things like ordering in Mexican food for a themed lunch. The truth is, we spend our best waking hours at work and with our co-workers. As a leader, how can you add something enjoyable or unexpected to the mundane? How can you do something fun that speaks to the culture at your organization or captures the spirit of the team. Do we sometimes take ourselves too seriously? If you lighten things up, can it open the doors for more creativity, collaboration and positive energy? Who can’t use more of those characteristics in their workplace?
2) Be Approachable
Sometimes a manager for fear of being too friendly becomes stiff and unapproachable to their team. They put up a wall that makes it hard to get to know them. As leader, strive to be affable. Find the right balance where your team finds it easy to talk to you and be truthful with you, but you remain respected. Care about what people think, ask their opinions about how things function in the office. If you are not taking advantage of your front-line experts, you will miss opportunities to improve.
Do be balanced, Michael takes this to an unhealthy extreme because he looks to several people on his team as “buddies” and tries on numerous occasions to interject himself into their social lives. There is nothing wrong with being friends with people you work with and even seeing people from work socially outside of the office. Just caution yourself; when you become so close with people you work with in a “BFF” way, your judgment can become compromised to their performance or other difficult business decisions a leader may face. When the boss’s friendships are selective with people in the office it also creates the impression of biased treatment, even if it does not exist.
3) Let Your Team Do the Job They Were Hired to Do
If there is one word you could not use to describe Michael Scott, it would be “micro-manager”. Perhaps it would have bored to television viewing audience if he pulled aside Oscar and started questioning his accounting practices and wanted to go over the budget line-by-line. Can you imagine him sitting down with Toby (the Human Resources Person) to discuss and question every HR practice in place? I realize it does not make for good TV, the there is a useful message here: Don’t let your team check their brains at the door. Give people the accountability and authority to do the job they were hired and are qualified to do. Give them goals and let them manage how it gets done. One of the most motivating phrases you can tell someone is, “I believe in you, I trust you and what you think is best”.
In one early episode, Michael goes on a sales call with a more junior person. The junior sales person was basically shadowing Michael. Up to this point the audience could easily question Michael’s competence in his role. We they get to see him in action with the customer he is brilliant, eloquent and manages to close the sale. It was a shining illustration or leading by example. The junior person took away a real-life example of how to be effective in sales not a bunch of talk or a boring lecture.
So perhaps this is how I justify tuning in on Thursday nights to a comedy show that may not be the most mind-challenging way to spend ½ an hour? Keep in mind there are lessons in leadership all around us: what to do and what to avoid if we are paying attention. The key is how we observe, process and maintain enough self-awareness to make small, on-going, changes that make us better. In the spirit of keeping it light, I leave you with a short clip as a reminder to have fun. Here is one of Michael’s typical antics, useful for a good chuckle: Michael’s Best Moments.