Passive management

Do managers always have to make decisions? Do they always have to interfere? What can you do in the time of a crisis when no solution seems to be feasible?
Passive management is knowing when not to interfere and let the events unfold itself. Managers will face situations on their jobs where there seem to be no feasible solution to a problem at hand. Successful managers know when to do the right thing at the right time; sometimes the right thing to do is not to do anything.

We sometimes take decisions out of fear or anxiety only to find out later that those decisions were more emotional than logical. On my first real job after college I had a manager who would make a decision on almost every situation, most of his decisions were based on trying to advance himself in the corporation, there were times where he should have kept silent or should have made the least interference. He thought by making himself visible and having a say in every situation will attract the attention of the upper management to him. Unfortunately for this manager the project he was managing failed miserably and he ended up losing his job; he made decisions at times where he should have waited or kept silent.

Another example with another job I had; I was in charge of negotiating a partnership agreement with an international client, I was giving the assignment because of my ability to speak the language of the client plus my managerial skills. Another manager on the firm got interested in my project and wanted to be a part of the project team, I have told this manager indirectly about my intentions to bring him onboard. He was not able to keep silent and play a passive role till we get a firm control of the partnership and than he could join; he started to interfere with our negotiations with the foreign partner through the upper management. The interference of this manager in the process led to a big confusion and the foreign partner eventually lost interest in the partnership.

So, as a manager, sometimes you got to keep cool, take a step back and just watch the events unfold.