I am fortunate to have worked on a team led by Anne Cawley early in my career. Experience working with her enabled me to know, rather than speculate, about the power of an effective manager.
What elements of her management style made her effective?
Congruence: She conversed with members of her team as equals rather than subordinates.
Hiring: She has a keen insight into people and team dynamics. She hired people who were similar enough that they would bond with the team and yet they were different enough to generate powerful discussion, learning and commitment.
Work Ethic: She led by example. She was always willing to do her share of the work and more.
Meetings: She led our team meetings systematically. She made my previous managers look like amateurs. I never left her meetings feeling my time had been wasted.
Interaction: Despite the members of the team being located in three different continents, we had quarterly face-to-face meetings.
Process: Our group had a process and part of it was to innovation. Our process helped us produce high-quality products on schedule.
Consensus: She worked for consensus. But she didn’t abdicate decisions to the team. She considered her vote as important as each member of the team.
Practice: She believed in practice. The group created and delivered lots of presentations to engineering organizations. The practice enabled us to deliver with authority.
Marketing: She assumed the larger organization would not fully see the value of her team. She constantly demonstrated the value of her team to the larger organization.
Fun: She knew that it paid dividends for the team to have fun together. At least once a year, we had events with our spouses at fun places.
Two decades later I still remember many lessons that I learned working with Anne and the other members of the team. Anne created the right results by doing the right things, the right way.
My previous managers taught me what not to do. Anne Cawley taught me what to do. Knowing what to do trumps knowing what not to do every time.
I’m grateful for the opportunity to experience true teamwork led by an amazing leader.
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