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 First Ingredient

1 Reply

From the Ask Tom mailbag:

Question:

Please, help me. I am 26, a mechanical engineer, Egyptian, living in Egypt. I am working as a mechanical engineer on drilling rigs, but I want to move into a career in management. I think I am ready for this move, but the problem I face is that I don’t know how to start. What should I learn first?

Response:

There is no technique to learn that makes you a manager. It is a role that you play inside an organization. You report to either a supervisor or a manager. Your next step is to simply observe your boss. What kinds of things are they doing, what kinds of things are they responsible for? You will find it is a totally different job than your job. Talk to your boss, explain your interest.

Understand, this is a long term process. You may think you are ready, but you are only ready to start. You are only ready to start to learn. You are NOT ready to take a position as a manager.

Explain to your boss, that, over the next few months, you would like to help, assist in some of the smaller duties, so that you can understand what is involved, so that you can practice.

Becoming a manager is not something you learn. Becoming a manager is something you grow into. You have the first ingredient, your desire to grow. -TF

For More Than a Day

Leave a reply

“What would be the benefit of drawing a flow chart of this system?” I asked. Valerie had solved the problem, but I wanted her to transform the solution into a system that could be used again.

“For starters, drawing a picture of the system helps me get it straight in my own mind, and makes it easier to explain it to someone else,” she replied.

“And what if one of your team members has a suggestion for improvement?”

“They can go right to the spot on the picture and we can talk about it.” Valerie was already pulling a piece of paper to the table.

“Valerie, what’s different about your supervisor solving this problem yesterday and the work you are about to do now, as a manager?”

“Well, my supervisor solved the problem to get us out of a jam, yesterday. I am working on a system to prevent the jam from happening again. My supervisor was working for one day. I am working on the future.”

Now Build a System

Leave a reply

“So, what does it take to create a system like that?” I asked. “To create a system that would notify for rejected parts along with lead times for replacement parts and alternate suppliers?”

Valerie was shaking her head. “I know our computer software pretty well and to program that functionality would be pretty expensive.”

I reached in my bag and pulled out a handful of 3×5 index cards. “Suppose I said that you were not allowed to modify your software and the only tool you could use were these 3×5 cards? Now build a system. Let’s start with how frequently it happens.”

“You’re right,” Valerie started. “It doesn’t happen that often. Our QC guy who certifies incoming parts, could send a card with the details to our purchasing person. Our purchasing person has access to lead times and alternate vendors. Purchasing gets their order quantities from sales orders, so they could run a reverse report to find out what orders would be impacted, that’s easy.”

“What else do we need to know to effectively respond?”

“We would need to get our sales people involved to find out what wiggle room we have on those orders. Since we are three weeks ahead of the game, there are all kinds of adjustments that can be made with ample notification.”

“If I asked to draw a picture of this on a piece of paper using circles, arrows and labels, could you do that?”

“You mean, like a flow chart?” Valerie asked.

“Like a flow chart.” -TF

Three Weeks, Not Three Days

2 Replies

Our next Leadership class in Fort Lauderdale begins May 21. Visit www.workingleadership.com.
__

“Well, I thought our team did pretty well, given the circumstances,” Valerie continued to protest.

“Yes, they did,” I replied. “And those circumstances should never have existed. To come down to the wire and find you are missing 500 critical parts on an order should never have happened.”

Valerie shifted in her chair. “But stuff happens.”

“Yes, stuff happens all the time and that’s why your system should detect these conditions. When did you find out that your supplier had shipped 500 defective parts?”

Valerie looked to the left. “Three weeks ago.”

“What difference would it have made if your system had delivered a report three weeks ago that showed 500 rejected parts along with replacement lead time, a list of alternate parts vendors and their lead times, along with all orders pending that required that part?”

Valerie’s head was nodding. “We would have had three weeks to work on the problem instead of three days.”

Create the System

Leave a reply

Our next Leadership program in Fort Lauderdale begins May 21. Visit www.workingleadership.com.
__

“But, we got the parts in and shipped the units. I thought we handled that quite well,” protested Valerie.

“You are right, your supervisor did a good job. That’s what supervisors do. But your work, as a manager, was not done,” I replied. “The job of the manager is to create the system. When you discovered you would be short of parts, it was your supervisors job to go find the parts, but it was your job to ask

  • Why didn’t our system anticipate this shortage?
  • Why didn’t our system detect this shortage as soon as the order was placed into our system?
  • Why didn’t our system spot our supplier’s inventory and indicate a shortfall in those parts?
  • Why didn’t our system have alternate vendors for those critical parts?
  • Why didn’t our system continually track alternate supplier inventories to find odd lots at aggressive pricing?

“The job of the manager is to create the systems, monitor the systems, improve the systems. It’s great that we have a supervisor who knows how to scramble. But I prefer a system that responds to our constantly changing circumstances. The role of the manager is to create those systems.” -TF

Lucky Break

3 Replies

“Then what is my role, as the manager?” Valerie asked. “I do all the same stuff as the supervisor, it’s just that most of the time, I handle the bigger problems.”

“Bigger problems, like what?” I followed.

“Like last week, we had a large order for a customer, an international customer, and one of the components from a supplier was defective, 500 units we had to reject. The customer is screaming because he has already sold the first three shipments that we can’t deliver.”

“What did you do, as the manager?”

“Well, I scrambled around and found 500 units from a supplier in California. In fact, they were leftover stock and we got them cheaper than our normal supplier.”

“Why didn’t your supervisor locate them for you?” I asked.

Valerie looked sideways. “Well, actually he did. I said I scrambled, meaning my supervisor scrambled. He is the one who found the parts. It was kind of a lucky break that solved the problem.”

“So your supervisor did his job, as a supervisor, and you failed to do your job as a manager.”

Valerie looked puzzled. -TF

Accurate and Complete

Leave a reply

This short conversation with Valerie was moving toward the near side of frustration for her.

“Look,” I said, “the role of the supervisor and the role of the manager are distinctly different. It’s not that one is smarter or has more experience, but they bring separate and necessary value to what we do as an organization.

“The role of the supervisor is to make sure the work gets done. The tools are schedules, checklists and meetings. The value-add is accuracy, completeness and timeliness. It’s the role of the supervisor to make sure the entire project is complete, not ninety five percent, that there are no gaps in service and, at the end of the day, the project meets the customer’s specifications and deadlines.

“That’s the role of the supervisor.” -TF

Can’t Explain

1 Reply

“So, what you are telling me is that you were overpaying lead technicians under the guise of supervisor. And you couldn’t figure out why they all underperformed?” I asked.

Valerie was shaking her head. They were in the process of hiring three managers to replace six supervisors.

“Well, it’s hard to explain,” she began. “I mean, I think the biggest difference between a supervisor and a manager, is just more experience and we have to pay a manager more. But they should do a better job and be able to handle more.”

“Handle more, what?”

“You know, handle more!” Valerie exclaimed.

“Valerie, if you can’t explain it to me, how will you explain it to your new managers, I mean supervisors.”

Valerie looked for help from the ceiling, then to her right. “We just need someone who can do a better job, I don’t know how to explain it any better than that.”

“So, you are going to try to hire someone with a bit more experience who still may not be right for the job?” -TF

Not a Chance

2 Replies

“That’s why we decided to get rid of our six supervisors and hire three managers to replace them,” Valerie explained. “The three managers will work with a lead technician on each crew.”

“Tell me why you eliminated the supervisor layer?” I asked.

“They weren’t really doing the job. At the pay rate, we weren’t getting our money’s worth. We think if we pay a little bit more, we can get a better person. That’s why we decided having three managers would be better than having six supervisors.”

“Valerie, I am a bit disturbed about the way you have structured the accountabilities. Let’s talk about the general expectations of a supervisor, you know, the ones you decided to get rid of.

“The primary role of the supervisor is to make sure the work gets done,” I continued. “The primary tools of the supervisor are schedules, checklists and meetings. It is the job of the supervisor to anticipate the required volume of work, make sure we have the right amount of materials on-hand to complete the tasks, schedule the proper equipment and assign the right number of people. During the day, as tasks are being completed, it is the job of the supervisor to monitor progress toward the daily goal.”

Valerie was almost laughing. “Well, I can tell you that is definitely NOT what our supervisors were doing, not even close.”

“And that’s not all,” I continued. “Supervisors should be looking ahead specifically to tomorrow and the rest of the week. They should be reviewing production demand for the rest of the month, making sure materials will be on-hand, that equipment will be available and that we have sufficient personnel.”

Valerie was smiling but shaking her head. “Not a chance,” she replied.

The Real Work

1 Reply

Wes was turning inward, thinking about his role. “I never really thought about the people system that I’m responsible for. I always thought of recruiting as a necessary evil. We never plan for it. Conducting interviews is always inconvenient. I fill a position as quick as I can, so I can get back to my real work as a manager.”

“And what real work is that?” I asked.

“You know, motivation issues, management issues,” Wes replied.

“Did you ever think that if you focused more on the recruiting side, the selection side that your issues related to motivation and management might disappear?” -TF