A little more about management

A little more about management… over the past week, I’ve had to have meetings with folks in my sector about roles and responsibilities. It was a very odd position to be in, because it really isn’t my style to tell someone what they are supposed to do, what I do, and that what I do is tell them what to do. It’s different from, as Fumie would call it, “smack down” sessions we might have with agencies, only because it is an institution v. institution issue. Here, it is a position v. position issue (i.e. my position is different from yours…). I had to have a talk with my deputy actually this week, where I had to softly lay down the law… I had talking points I had drafted earlier, because I was so nervous. He took it well – he is a military guy after all – and since then, things have gone smoothly ….Another management skill I’m learning. There are a ton of things I need to learn, I’ve quickly discovered.

No matter what you think about this war, I think we can all sympathize with the "military guy" who had to endure that talking-to.

On a totally unrelated matter – The other day, I was offered the position of Dep. Director of Programs (aka “Knothole”), where I would help oversee all of the sectors that we are doing reconstruction in – water, electricity, oil, buildings/health/education, security and justice, and roads/communications. I am definitely flattered that I have been offered the job, but I am also really liking running the water sector, and am trying to figure out maybe how I can do both. I did a whole decision matrix the other night, and weighted it (one of the items in the “con” side of the “doing both” option – provided by a good friend of mine – was “sh#$tty home life”. Heh). I think I am going to try to do both, but where I have defined a narrower scope of what I call “deputy director”. I ran it by the big cheese last night, and he seemed to like the idea. It’s so funny how everyone has a title for everything over here.