For most parts of my banking life, I've worked out of communal spaces in which senior directors sit out in the open and fraternize with the rest of everyone across the ranks.

There weren't many physical boundaries. Everyone works out of a common row of desks or cluster of cubicles. When a director needs some stuff to be done, he/she just gets up, walks a few steps over to the analyst's table to talk. It was the same for some of our clients. I recall the Chief Operating Officer of an airline company we were advising sat openly in the center of the entire office. No walls, no barriers, just a table with a desktop computer and stacks of documents.

When I asked them why they had arranged the seating this way, they said it was to ensure the key person is readily accessible by everyone in the office, much like the control tower of an airport.

So it takes a bit of getting used to when I get to sit in a glass box.

An example of work cubicles during my banking days

While I don’t see this as a privilege, there is indeed a price for people who sit in a glass box.

There are unspoken ‘expectations’. Expectations on capability, responsibilities, and many more. People sitting on the outside usually see those sitting on the inside as 'senior management' regardless of whether they really are.

So what makes management a good management?

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Over the last couple of years, I had been reflecting and discovering through interactions with different people, pondering - what makes a leader outstanding, how do people acquire the necessary management skills, and if business schools really provide any tangible knowledge on this. After all, there are many academic modules covering organisational behaviour and strategy.

There are also many case studies drawing references to notable thought leaders and practitioners: Peter Drucker, Michael Porter, Jack Welch, Bob Iger and many others. It is refreshing to read about them along with a wide variety of insights from their accumulated experiences. But the application of their management expertise in reality is much more difficult.

Since I started working, I have had opportunities to try my hand at management. I also had many opportunities to observe from a third-party's perspective how line managers and their co-workers try to navigate these.

Not all leaders manage their teams well, and most employees never have good feedback about their bosses. Year end performance appraisals for most are almost always never excellent since the bar is either usually too high or the outcomes are assessed on a bell curve with only being able to achieve their targets. At times, I wonder if there are any perfect solutions, and who decides whether management styles had been effective.

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Just get it done.

Perhaps the most important principle is to deliver. Results are basically everything: Revenue and profits. Quantifiable metrics are not only tangible, they are observable and most of the time hard to refute.

To contextualise this to military ops: The mission is everything. The spirit is: If it needs to be done, it will be done. And you'll do whatever it takes to get the job done.

"Being a leader isn't about ability. It's about responsibility." - Colonel Iverson (The Core)

I've seen too many managers try to impress, in different ways. They try to look the part, exert authority, flaunt their past experience or pedigree background.

The reality is that most people, especially employees, only care about ability to the extent it affects their bonuses or whether or not they will need to work overtime. Looking good is overrated. Responsibility is not about taking credit but mostly also about the taking the rap when shit hits the fan.

You will look stupid screwing up or when someone in your team screws up. But that's part of the job that no one tells you when you become a manager. It's not about taking credit for good performance but also 'taking credit' for the slip ups.

Responsibility also means developing the technical and personal aspects of the people around you. By helping those around you, you are indirectly relieving yourself of unnecessary management work freeing up more time for doing the more important things and in the process delivering the point above on getting the job done.

The office environment is full of "Do this", "Do that". One of the things I like to ask after any meeting or conference call is: "what do you think?". Because no one, especially in the junior ranks, expects their opinion to be taken seriously. Most of them believe that it is not in their place to make decisions.

This mindset, if not managed well, can lead to prolonged apathy at the work place, overburdening managers with decision making, which may not always be the best judgement. This is also how good corporate culture gets destroyed. Employees at the workplace get increasingly disconnected because "no one listens to me any way."

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I am genuinely interested in developing colleagues and staff - across all ranks. Money aside, there is no better satisfaction of seeing how someone goes out of his/her comfort zone to overcome their limitations. This can even be as simple as delivering a presentation, facilitating a conference call or even achieving a breakthrough in a seemingly impossible project.

It is also very encouraging to see managers get excited brainstorming on a new strategy, daring to experiment with possible solutions, not being afraid to try, and perhaps more importantly, not being afraid to fail or look bad.

After all, we are all about just getting the job done aren't we?

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Management is: Get it done, follow-up, discipline, planning, analysis, facts, facts, facts. It’s [getting] the right people in the room, kill the bureaucracy, all of these various things... ...Humility, openness, fairness and being authentic are most important – it's not about being the smartest person in the room or the hardest working person in the room. - Jamie Dimon, 2020