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.

Personality Conflict?

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“Why do you think they were too scared to talk about the real problem stopping this project?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” Alicia replied. “I guess I really need to work on creating a more open environment. But I think I have a personality problem. It’s hard to talk about a personality conflict in the middle of a meeting. That’s why it was so weird. We couldn’t talk about the real problem, so we couldn’t talk about anything at all.”

“So, how do you intend to create an environment where your team can deal with the real problem and get back to productive work?”

“I guess I need to pull the two project leaders aside and talk to them in private,” Alicia nodded.

“What if I told you, in the long run, that would make matters worse?” -TF

The Secret

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Open Registration is now available for Working Leadership Online. Orientation begins August 9, Session One begins August 16.
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“I don’t get it,” Alicia explained. “We just had a meeting on how to rescue this stalled project. No one came up with any ideas. For an hour. It was like waiting to go see the dentist.”

“So, your team didn’t isolate the problem,” I prompted.

“Oh yeah, they did, just not in the meeting. We wasted an entire hour. Only when the meeting was over, I find out, at the water cooler, the project is stalemated because the two project leaders are angry at each other.”

“Someone told you at the water cooler?” I asked.

“Oh, no, I only found out by accident. There were two people whispering a little too loud. I put two and two together.”

So, why didn’t this come up at the meeting?”

“I don’t know,” Alicia wondered out loud. “It’s like it was a secret. A secret everyone was too scared to talk about.”

Momentum In Avoiding

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“What do you mean, cripple my team?” Lydia protested. “I mean, I agree that I shouldn’t force my decision on the group. I need to get buy-in. But cripple my team?”

“No, in this case, buy-in is just a cover-up. This is a team decision with team responsibility and consequences for the team no matter which way they choose. As the leader, if you make this decision for the team, they are no longer responsible and the consequences are no longer theirs. Even with buy-in, when the team suffers the consequences from your decision, you will be to blame. They will take you to the mat.”

Lydia was silent.

“And your team will gain more experience and momentum in avoiding responsibility than stepping up to the plate. As the leader, you will cripple your team.” -TF

Crippling the Team

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“I cannot believe the way people are responding to this situation,” Lydia explained. “They know the right thing to do, but they are all wimps, now that they have to stand up for it.”

“What is your position?” I asked.

“To do the right thing. I laid out the steps we need to take, who we need to contact and how we need to present the facts. I know it’s unpopular, but it’s the right thing to do.”

“How are you going to persuade the team to take the right action?”

“I’m the leader, so I could just force the issue, take the steps on my own,” she replied.

“And what kind of leadership is that?”

Lydia thought, grinned, then slowly nodded. “That would be tyrannical leadership, I suppose.”

“And if you are a tyrant and force it, then you let the team off the hook. They are no longer responsible for taking action. You cripple them from being responsible in the future.” -TF

Perfectly Plausible

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Pre-registration for our Working Leadership Online program has ended. Open registration begins next Monday. Details.
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Brett was somewhat disturbed with my observations about his dilemma.

“I don’t think you are being fair,” he said. “You know the market is tight and you know we are out there doing our best to drum up sales.”

“Do you have a competitor that is already out of business?” I asked.

“Not one, we lost three competitors almost nine months ago. The market wasn’t even nearly as tight as it is now. They just couldn’t sustain it.”

“If you ran into one of them in the grocery store and asked them why they went out, what would they say?”

“Well, they would blame it on the market,” Brett replied.

“Yes. And everyone would believe them and feel some empathy for them. It is a perfectly plausible excuse. Your former competitors chose to live with the problem, and whine and complain about it, rather than make the changes necessary to get a different result.” -TF

Easier to Live With the Problem

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“Things are getting tight,” Brett explained. “This market is a lot different from a year ago.”

“Yes,” I replied.

“The phone doesn’t ring anymore. We only prepare two or three bids a week, now instead of two or three a day. So, it’s no wonder that our sales are down, backlog dwindling.”

“It’s quite a problem. I am glad you are happy with it.”

Brett shifted in his chair. “Happy, I’m not happy about it.”

I smiled. “Sure you are. You know, it doesn’t have to be this way.”

Brett shifted again. “What do you mean? I just told you that our market has changed. Getting sales is tougher.”

“What would you have to do to maintain your sales volume, even if the phone doesn’t ring?” I asked.

Brett looked puzzled. “Well, we would have to get out of the office, go out and look for new customers, but we are already doing some of that. It’s just hard to do.”

“So, you are happy to have this problem. It’s a lot easier to live with the problem of lagging sales than it is to make the necessary changes that create sales in spite of the market.” -TF

It’s Your Committee

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From the Ask Tom mailbag:

Question:

I need to design an SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) for procurement of goods and services and inventory management.

We have the Factory Manager and the Purchasing Manager who are more interested in establishing their supremacy.

We need to design a clear cut process that supports our systems.

Response:

The Factory Manager and the Purchasing Manager are only doing what you told them to do. The Factory Manager is to produce a high quality product as efficiently and profitably as possible. The Purchasing Manager is to purchase raw materials and services that meet the minimum specification at the lowest possible cost.

Sometimes those agendas are in conflict. This is actually normal.

However, it is your responsibility to integrate these two agendas, meet their essential requirements and orchestrate the solutions where there are differences.

  1. Convene a committee. Make it clear that it is YOUR committee and that while you are asking for input and analysis, YOU will make the final decisions as to what will be included or excluded from the SOP.
  2. The committee will contain three or five individuals. The Factory Manager, the Purchasing Manager and an additional Administrative Manager at their level. If the Factory Manager and the Purchasing Manager each need an assistant, then you have five on the committee.
  3. The Factory Manager and the Purchasing Manager will be tasked with separately creating a list of requirements and submitting them at a meeting (without you) to be conducted by the Administrative Manager. The Administrative Manager will be tasked with collecting those requirements, holding a discussion and writing the first draft of the SOP.
  4. You will review the first draft and submit your written comments back to the committee so the Administrative Manager can complete the final draft.
  5. You convene a meeting to congratulate the team for producing the SOP.
  6. Schedule a review meeting for 90 days to review how the SOP has worked and solicit input for additional changes. The SOP should be calendared for review every 6-12 months.

Keep us updated. -TF

Things Change

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Pre-registration for our online program Working Leadership Online will close this Friday, July 25. Pre-registration earns you a $50 coupon. We anticipate the program to be underway August 9.
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“I know we are missing a couple of Managers,” admitted Derrick. We intentionally allowed these positions to be open. We thought we could get by.”

“And now you are paying the price,” I responded.

“I guess we thought our systems were solid,” Derrick hopefully floated.

“Perhaps they were, but things change. Your systems have to be constantly monitored, constantly tweaked. Not only did you lose the predictability of your momentum, but it cost you backtracking to re-locate the source of the problem. That’s why you felt, at times, that you were playing Whack-a-mole.”

“So, what’s the next step?” asked Derrick.

“Two-fold. You have to keep a handle on the Whack-a-mole and you also need to find a new manager.” -TF
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For those interested in our Online program, here is our expected schedule.

July 25 Pre-registration closes ($50 coupon)
July 28 Standard Registration
August 9 Kickoff and Orientation

Not the Time to be a Superhero

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“You have two out of five manager positions in place on a daily basis, so when you have a problem, you think you are fixing it when you are NOT fixing it,” I offered.

“What do you mean?” Derrick asked.

“When you have a problem, you think you are fixing it. In fact, you have a supervisor in play to make sure the problem gets fixed.”

“So, the problem is fixed,” Derrick insisted.

“No, the problem is fixed, but the system is still broken. You are missing three of five Managers, so you are not paying proper attention to your systems.

“You see, Derrick, when you have a problem, everyone scrambles to fix the problem. Even experienced Managers put on their superhero cape and leap in front of their biggest customer to save the day.

“What they need to focus on,” I continued, “is not the problem. They need to focus on the system. Why didn’t the system prevent that problem? Or at least mitigate the damage from the problem? Their role is NOT to fix the problem, but to fix the system.” -TF

Two Out of Five

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We will be closing registration soon for our Online Leadership Program. For those who don’t get into this session, we will start a waiting list for next time.
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Derrick located a copy of the org chart. “A little out of date,” he remarked.

“It’s time stamped only three weeks ago,” I said.

“Yeah, well, it’s still out of date.”

“So, if I think you have a system problem, where should I look on the org chart?” I asked.

“All these people are the ones who are doing the work, and the supervisors make sure the work gets done. You have to be looking at our managers,” Derrick observed.

“Yes, and I see you have five manager positions. Those are the ones responsible for creating the systems inside your company.”

“That’s why it’s a little out of date. One manager got promoted to Vice President and we figured he could still cover his old position. This manager, here, got an offer from another company, and we decided that we might be able to do without for a while. And this manager, our controller, wanted to move to the northern part of the state. And with the internet, she does her work from home.”

“Let me get this straight. You have five manager positions, monitoring your systems, yet only two out of five actually show up for work here?” -TF