You Can Be Wrong As A Manager Even If You're Right All The Time

"I can articulate and debate a viewpoint from many angles, and I found that I could be technically right and force somebody into a viewpoint," says Jed Yueh, chief executive of Delphix, a software company that streamlines data management, in an interview with The New York Times. "But then they would slowly spiral into a place where they're not really working hard because they feel demoralized. So I lost wars by winning battles."

Yueh says that one of the biggest management mistakes he's ever committed is not being able to manage himself. Managers need to think about the bigger picture and focus on big-picture wins. If you're set on being right and not truly listening to your subordinates, at the end of the day, you lose even if you are technically right.

"Managers can either increase or decrease motivation for their teams. They can either increase or decrease clarity for their teams," Yueh says. "They can either build cultures that are highly collaborative and capable of solving problems quickly, or they can create cultures where you have a lot of paralysis, and it's very difficult to make decisions."

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