Author Archives: Tom Foster

About Tom Foster

Tom Foster spends most of his time talking with managers and business owners. The conversations are about business lives and personal lives, goals, objectives and measuring performance. In short, transforming groups of people into teams working together. Sometimes we make great strides understanding this management stuff, other times it’s measured in very short inches. But in all of this conversation, there are things that we learn. This blog is that part of the conversation I can share. Often, the names are changed to protect the guilty, but this is real life inside of real companies.

The INBOX

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“I am not suggesting that you stop using email,” I continued. “I am suggesting that you use it like a tool.”

“But there are so many emails, every day,” Diane resisted.

“How many of those are junk, that don’t even need to be opened?” I asked.

“Well, there are some, but most get trapped in our spam filter.”

“And, of what’s left, how many need an immediate 1-2 sentence response?”

Diane was thinking, “About 10 percent.”

“And what do you do with those?”

“I leave them in my INBOX so I don’t forget them, until I can get around to replying.”

“And what about the ones that need a decision, where you have to think about the alternatives. What happens to those emails?”

“Those are important, so I keep those in my INBOX,” Diane replied.

“And what about those emails that are informational, don’t need a response, but you need the information for some reason, like an update on a project? Where do you keep those?”

“Well, if it’s an active project that I am working on, I will likely leave it in my INBOX so I can get to it quickly, in case someone asks me about the project.”

“Diane, do you see a pattern, here?”

Yes, But Email Is…

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“You use Outlook for your email. Can you set up folders for your email?” I asked.

“Yes, it comes with a folder for Business emails, Personal emails and I guess I can set up folders for each of my projects,” Diane explained.

“What seems to be the problem?” I asked.

“I get so many emails and they stack up in my INBOX. I could literally sit at my desk all day and answer emails.”

“Really, is that why your company hired you, to answer emails?” I pressed.

“No, of course not, but email is one of my primary communication tools to get things done,” she protested.

“Is it a tool, or a weight around your neck?”

“It’s supposed to be a tool.”

“Well, is it a tool, or a weight?”

How We Choose to Spend It

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We all start with the same inventory. We all choose how we are going to spend it. Some people spend it wisely, some foolishly. If we choose not to use it, it vanishes into thin air.

Time can never be recaptured. Lost money can be recovered, made back. Lost time is lost forever.

Managing Time, Managing Yourself is the next subject area in our series Working Leadership Online. Kicks off on Monday, May 18.

Here is what a past graduates had to say.

“I read the material over the weekend and immediately implemented the ideas. This is very effective, my INBOX is clean every day and I can work with my EA on the items in the folders to see what I can delegate. This was new and an immediate quick hit.”

Follow this link to register, Working Leadership Online.

“If you cannot manage time, you cannot manage anything.” -Peter Drucker

Looking forward to seeing you online. –Tom Foster

You Won’t Do Nine of Them

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“I just feel like I am a little overwhelmed,” Sam explained.

“Your manager says it’s more than a little,” I replied.

“Yes, some days it borders on out of control.”

“Would you agree, that if you worked 16 hours a day, every day, seven days a week, you would still not get everything done?”

“That’s the way it feels, sometimes.”

“How can I help you get more organized?” I asked.

“You’re the expert, I thought you were going to tell me what to do?” Sam insisted.

“I can tell you what to do, but I will guarantee that you won’t do it.” I laughed.

“What do you mean?”

“The way I organize time may not work for you. You have to figure out your best way. There are a dozen things you could do, but you won’t do nine of them. You have to figure out the two or three that work for you.”

Accountability for the Goal

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From the Ask Tom mailbag:

Follow-up:
Thanks, I appreciate your validation on the accountability for goals. The corrective measures I indicated include coaching sessions with the manager and a redistribution of tasks in order to accomplish those daily and weekly goals. Your recent blog on control measures hit home with this particular situation as well. The measures were set up to catch mistakes instead of preventing mistakes.

Response:
This shift in “who is accountable for the goal?” is huge and immediately changes the way the manager relates to the team. While the team may be doing the production work, it is the supervisor or manager who allocates resources, schedules resources, sets priorities, authorizes overtime, pulls a team member from one project to another.

The most important decisions for the manager are:

  • The Time Span estimate for the task to be assigned and
  • The volume of workload (number of tasks) assigned to an individual team member.

Yet, the accountability for the goal (completion) remains with the manager.

Crazy Disciplinary Action

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From the Ask Tom mailbag:

Question:
I have a manager whose gifts are with task management. Unfortunately, her task lists are quite extensive. I find the tasks assigned are time appropriate, there are just too many of them. I believe this is an underlying cause of increased disciplinary actions toward our employees and am taking measures to correct. Have you seen this situation before?

Response:
Are you asking if, sometimes, we give people too many tasks to do and then beat up on them when they fail to bring everything in on time?

Just because a supervisor can put (40) one-hour tasks on a list does not mean a great week’s schedule has been created.

Your question is really one of accountability for the goal. In your crazy disciplinary action scenario, you appear to be overlooking the real culprit and going for the scapegoat.

Whose goal is it? that is being assigned? We miss this all the time. The goals (tasks) being assigned by your supervisor are the supervisor’s goals. If the goal is not achieved, it is the supervisor that I go looking for.

Teach Each Other

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“Alright, so I should have members of my team inspect their own work for accuracy. How do I know they will do the right thing?” Daniele asked. “These files are important and they have to be right. The feds could shut us down if they believe we aren’t in compliance.”

“Does your team know what the standards are?” I replied.

“Well, they should. Every one of them went through an orientation when they started to work here. And we have our quality sessions where I tell them what the auditor found that was wrong.”

I smiled. “Daniele, have you considered that when your team members went through your orientation, they were disoriented and may not remember all the details? Do you think we might go over that again. I looked at your orientation manual, it looks like there are five major sections to these files. You have five people on your team. Do you think you might divide things up?”

“You mean, have the team members teach each other?” Daniele gasped.

Too Busy Working

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“You are right,” Daniele admitted. “I have been keeping some quick stats on the mistakes we are finding in the files. Whenever I hold one of my accountability sessions, the mistakes disappear for about a week, then, boom, they are back again, and we find more.”

“So, finding the mistakes is not the problem?” I asked.

“No, and fixing the mistakes isn’t that hard either, but I want to stop the mistakes from being made in the first place.”

“So, tell me, Daniele, can the auditors stop the mistakes from happening?”

“No, they’re auditors, they don’t work on the files, they audit the files.”

“Okay, so who can stop the mistakes?” I pressed.

“Only my team can stop the mistakes.”

“What if you had your team audit the files?” I suggested.

“They can’t audit the files. They are too busy working the files. Can you imagine what would happen if they stopped production to check their work?”

Daniele stopped. A strange look emerged from her eyes as she thought about what she just said.

The System is Being Ignored

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“So, you think when I have this conversation about their mistakes, they are ignoring me because I lecture them?” Daniele asked.

“No, they are not ignoring you. They are ignoring your entire control system. Your control system is finding the mistakes, but the mistakes are continuing. Is the purpose of your control system to find mistakes or to find the causes for the mistakes and repair the cause?”

“I know. But I have to find the mistakes. And I have a great audit team. They are very thorough. I don’t know what I would do without them. They keep us in compliance,” Daniele stated flatly.

“How does your production team feel about your audit team?”

Daniele visibly changed, sat back and pulled away from her desk. “Well, they are not supposed to like the audit team. I don’t run a popularity contest around here. There is some friction, but I think it is good friction. My production team knows if they make a mistake, my audit team will find it. I think there is respect in that way.”

“Daniele, here are some things I know based on what you describe.

  • There are mistakes in your files that your audit team is NOT finding, that will put you out of compliance with the Feds.
  • Your production team has no respect for your audit team and is ignoring the results of your audits.
  • Some mistakes are being found, but the causes of the mistakes are not being identified.
  • Your situation is getting worse.

Why Are You Being Ignored?

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“You have a control system. Let me list the elements.

  • Your team works on a file.
  • Someone from another team audits the file and finds a mistake.
  • You, as the manager, get the results of the audit.
  • You, as the manager yell at the team member for making a mistake on the file.

Did I get that right?” I asked.

“Yes, well, I don’t really yell at them,” Daniele replied. “I mean, I talk calmly, I don’t raise my voice.”

“You don’t have to raise your voice to be yelling,” I chuckled.

“Okay, but let’s call it a lecture, not yelling,” she insisted.

“Why do you think they are ignoring you, when you have this little talk with them? I know they are nodding their heads, but trust me, the results from the audit team and you, as the manager, are being ignored in this control system. Why do you think that happens?”