Every now and then in life, you are lucky enough to meet someone so inspiring that they instantly change some small part about you forever.

I went to listen to George Monbiot talk at the Embassy Theatre on Saturday morning. He wasn’t there actually, we was ‘tele-ported’ in from the UK and just as brilliant on the big screen as I imagine he is in real life (He is he of a number of people who now refuse to board a plane if at all possible). If you EVER get a chance to, go listen to him. I struggled with his book Heat (not so good with non-fiction with my holey brain these days), but his facts on climate change and the simple, clear way he describes the problem, the solution and what he is doing will blow you away.

I took a snippet of video to show you what it was like although I wonder what kind of video link they Embassy was using and if it cost them a fortune. The connection was lost THREE times in an hour, which is not something I have experienced using good old FREE skype (seriously, if they paid a fortune, I just have to laugh - and Geroge himself commented that ALL international business should be conducted through video, but understood that if air travel was as dodgy as video connections are, then nobody would do that either).

Anyway, at the end someone said “Our climate is always changing, throughout history is had warmed and cooled on it’s own, how do you know this time it is us humans?” Just as Claire looked at me and said ‘He must get really sick of that question”, George said “I get REALLY sick of that question.”

He went on to rip apart the sheer arrogance of anyone who had read a newspaper or watched a TV programme or talked to a scientist and thought that was a good enough reason to question the absolute conclusions of the top climatologists in the world who have spent YEARS studying and understanding one of our most complex sciences.

It made me think.

I know a lot of managers who do the same.

I’ve only ever worked in small businesses and whenever people talk about such things, the advice seems to be that eventually, with enough experience the manager will learn to let go. Now I am thinking that is just rubbish.

What kind of arrogance do you have to have to assume you know how to do someone’s job better than they do? Who do you think you are to remove their right to own their work and have pride in it by telling them you know how to do it better or constantly questioning their judgment?

It’s the TOP complaint I hear from employees, and managers who simply let people do their jobs and trust them to complete the tasks they were hired and paid for are actually THANKED. Weird huh?

My dad has managed very large organisations and is of the same opinion as me, your job as a top level manager is strategic. You are responsible for the big picture and that everyone is heading towards it. Your job is NOT to nit pick over details and micro manage every aspect of your organisation (whether it be large or small). That is why you PAY people, you pay them because you think they can take care of their area of your company.

If you don’t think someone can do the job, don’t hire them and wait until you find someone who can. And when you assume you always know better than them or continuously trust your own judgment above theirs in areas of their responsibility, please recognise it for what it is and maybe take a step back. The people you work with will appreciate it.