Magnet Manager

The therapeutic metaphor is especially useful in managing different types of crisis. For instance, when the direction seems indistinguishable, the job or position of your dreams is no longer exactly like a dream.

Magnet Manager, the concept that I developed, it’s just another overview of the methods managers have at their disposal to ensure that they identify and recognize the most valuable skills of employees that they enhance and capitalize on.

“Please, let me catch my breath and then I’ll start talking”.

I give her a break. She is a 31-year-old woman. She has been coming to therapy every Monday evening for several weeks now. Precisely by Big Ben.

“I’m scared. I was appointed program director. I knew this was going to happen, I was prepared, but I wasn’t expecting the event until February next year.”

I ask her what the difference is.

“I’m not ready to put my signature as a manager. I don’t know if I deserve it. I think I’m too young. I don’t have solid technical knowledge yet. I haven’t read enough. I miss things.”

I suggest to relax. Let’s make a drawing, shall we? Anesthetized enough, she has no further questions. She draws random lines. Makes a network. I also add a few lines. Fine, barely perceptible. The result leads to a prehistoric animal.

Laughs. “It’s incomplete,” she tells me, and I cling to her statement like a lifeline. I ask her permission to name the drawing: “Magnet Manager”.

“Why Magnet Manager?”

I asked her what definition she would give for ”magnet”. “Something that attracts. Gather together”.

If you say your drawing is incomplete, and if your drawing represents a manager, how would you feel to complete it? What doesn’t your manager have right now? “Economic-financial, technical knowledge, knowledge in the field of social policy legislation. Oh, so many.”

So we have a problem. Let’s generate solutions. As many as we can. Say it, I record it.

We made a long list. When we reviewed it, she decided that all those solutions were too time and energy-consuming. She glanced at the drawing. “A magnet! I need a magnet to attract them faster, to complete the drawing faster.”

You are the magnet. “I am the magnet, you say?”

Yes. What are your managerial skills? “I’m a good communicator, I know that. People listen to me. I’m also charismatic. I am punctual and conscientious. Oh, and I listen very carefully. It counts?”

It counts. They are called soft skills. And it is a powerful magnet

Can you identify your colleagues who have the information you said you still lack for being a good manager? How quickly would these people come to you? How much would their presence help you in everything you do as a manager? How “complete” would you feel, knowing they are ready to support you?

“Are you telling me to delegate? That’s what you’re telling me, right? If I’m a good communicator and charismatic and punctual and conscientious and I know how to listen, it’s going to be easier for me to delegate, right? Is that what you’re telling me? It will be easier for me to see, to recognize my colleagues who can complete the picture of this moment, right? And I will also learn faster through them… Is that what you’re telling me?”

No, I’m not telling you anything. The therapist never tells you anything. The therapist invites you to sit on a different level than the one you usually live on, gives you the kit from which you build a flashlight, a reflector, a torch, a magnifying glass, whatever, and then all you have to do is shed light on what you choose to see. Details and whole.