82. Be above interdepartmental warfare

"If there had been investigations, which there haven't, or not necessarily, or I'm not at liberty to say whether there have, there would have been a project team which, had it existed, on which I cannot comment, would now have been dis­banded, if it had existed, and the members returned to their original departments, if indeed there had been any such members." Sir Humphrey in Yes Minister

I once worked for two bosses at the same time. They were two directors of the company and they hated each other. Each had an agenda. Each fought a vicious campaign against the other with us managers - and staff - as their foot soldiers, pawns, cannon fodder. It wasn't pleasant. They had their own area of responsi­bility and if you worked solely in any such area you were happy because you had one boss. But if you, like me, had to cross over frequently from one director's area into the other's, then life was made intolerable. The two directors countermanded each other's orders, played dirty tricks on each other, wouldn't speak to each other and generally behaved like very small children. I learned, and learned fast, to be a diplomat and a tactician. One director worked upstairs and one downstairs. I was sent up and down and learned to stop on the landing half way and stay there until each had forgotten what particular bit of interdepartmental warfare was going on. I also learned to play them off against each other to get what I wanted - but that was very naughty.

I guess that was about as bad as it got, but I've also worked in companies where the rivalry between departments was extreme and interfered with productivity, kept staff on edge and contributed, I think, to very high staff turnover. You would have thought the directors would have stopped it but in my first example you would see that even directors are capable of being very silly and childish. Don't you go the same way. Steer well clear of the lot of it, if you want my advice. Be open and honest and up-front in all your dealings and then you will get a good reputation and no one will be able to accuse you of being underhand.

83. Show that you'll fight to the death for your team

"Jim: Who else is in this department?

Sir Humphrey: Well briefly sir, I am the Permanent Undersecretary of State known as the Permanent Secretary Wooley here is your Principle Private Secretary I too have a Principle Private Secretary and he is the Principle Private Secretary to the Permanent Secretary Directly responsible to me are 10 Deputy Secretaries, 87 Undersecretaries and 219 Assistant Secretaries. Directly responsible to the Principle Private Secretaries are Plain Private Secretaries, and the Prime Minister will be appointing two Parliamentary Undersecretaries and you will be appointing your own Parliamentary Private Secretary

Jim: Can they all type?

Sir Humphrey: None of us can type, Minister. Mrs McKay types, she's the secretary"

Yes Minister

Your team is your tool for getting the job done - whatever it happens to be. Without your team - and that can be one lone person or thousands of people - you are nothing. Without your team you are an empty page waiting to be written - or typed. You must support your team, praise it, fight for it - to the death if need be. The brilliant manager - we don't need to say who that is by now, do we? - generates loyalty and respect by being the team cheerleader - that's you, that is.

You have to make people in your team see that you are not only their mentor, leader, guardian and protector but also their champion, their hero, their defender. If anyone tries to criticize them you will rise to their defence. If anyone tries to take advantage of them you will rush to protect them.

On the other hand you could always throw them to the wolves. See how far it gets you. But there are a lot of managers out there who seern to think that's the clever option, the right choice. What do you think? I've worked for and with some, and believe me they lose staff so fast.

If your staff have seen you defend them once, they will know they can trust you to have their best interests at heart. That if something unfair is being imposed on them, you will stand up for them. This also means that if you accept something, they are likely to accept it too - which makes for a smoother life all round.