The Lefferts law of management

Rob Lefferts, good friend and Group Program Manager for Microsoft Sharepoint, offered me a gem of advice recently. If there is a list of laws for being a good team manager, this would be near the top of my list:

The Lefferts law of management: It is your fault.

There are a dozen reasonable excuses in any situation for why things are not going well: don’t use them.

If you need more help, it’s your job to ask for it. If someone let you down, it’s your job to plan better next time or find a way to recover. If you are the bottleneck, it’s your fault for not delegating more. Whatever the thing is that isn’t going well, you are the primary person to do something about it. If you’re not sure what to do, it’s your job to ask others for advice. If you have the title ‘manager’ in your name, step up. Practice the habit of absorbing blame for what is going on, while distributing the rewards. When all else fails, be the fall guy. If people see you take enough bullets for them, soon they’ll be taking some for you.

The net effect on even a small team can change the balance of morale. Being passionately accountable for the project creates a shield for others and makes it safer for them to invest more personal responsibility in their work. When they do, the state of the work can only get better.

When in doubt, good managers assume something important is their fault and do something about it.

Update:� There are many managers who are adept at playing various excuse cards.� They blame their boss, a situation, lack of budget, and many conversations with them end with some form of “I’d like to help but it’s not my call”. The Leffert’s law suggests better managers play excuse cards less than other managers do.

Posted Tuesday, April 29th, 2008 at 11:15 am

in Management | 12 Comments » |

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Eddie - April 29, 2008 at 7:32 pm #

A very good point, I agree with this but you need to temper it with the gaining of respect otherwise you’ll end up always taking ALL the bullets! Jay has a really good post on this at:
http://www.jaymorrissey.com/2008/03/09/respect-is-kindness-your-weakness/

Jan - April 30, 2008 at 2:01 am #

Not always sage advice…

In many situations in large organizations there are groups ‘collaborating’ on a project. These groups are often filled with workers with sloppy shoulders and managers trying to align themselves with the next big win and distance themselves form (often their own) failures.

Absorbing blame in these situations will lead to more valueless work initially and probably getting sacked when things get tight and they fire ‘that useless guy who always messes up other people’s projects’

Sorry, but I just don’t think this is valid advice for everyone.

Martin - April 30, 2008 at 3:27 am #

I would add to Jan’s comments my viewpoint.

I think it’s important to clearly separate what’s your fault, and what’s not ; what is under your responsability, and what is not. Unless that, you’ll be a kind of “shock absorber” for all the organization…

Eric - April 30, 2008 at 6:20 am #

While taking responsibility is important, I think your last comment of “do something about it” is even more important. If somebody takes the blame for things without taking action, they look incompetent. Conversely, somebody who takes action on things that aren’t their fault looks like a proactive leader. So I almost wonder if the advice should be to take action rather than to accept blame.

NathanaelB - May 14, 2008 at 11:21 pm #

Jan, couldn’t then “doing something” be getting those people removing from the team or organisation? If they are actually incompetent then that’s a problem that can be fixed with enough effort :)

Good Links - April 29, 2008 « Emad’s Weblog - April 30, 2008 at 12:11 am

[...] Good Links – April 29, 2008 Published April 30, 2008 Good Links Managers should assume responsibility: http://www.scottberkun.com/blog/2008/the-lefferts-law-of-management/ [...]

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