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.

Allocation of Your Most Precious Resource

Leave a reply

“Looking at the future,” Glen contended, “we are desperately looking for that new something that is going to help replace some our declining lines of business. We find something, we gear up for it, commit some people to the project, but so far, all of those projects have failed. We end up pulling the plug.”

“Who have you committed to these new projects?” I asked.

“Well, they are new projects, so we generally take those people that we can spare from our core project lines.”

“Are these your best and brightest people?”

“Well, no. Our best people are still running our core projects. But we can usually spare a couple of people from one of their teams.”

“So, you are trying to cobble together a launch team, in an untried project area, where unforeseen problems have to be detected and corrected, and you are doing this with spares?”

Focus

2 Replies

“But, I want to improve,” Barbara stated, flatly. “If there is an area, where I need improvement, or where I make mistakes, I want to focus on that.”

“Indeed, if you are an ice skater,” I replied, “and your laces are untied, you are likely to take a nasty spill. So get your laces tied, tightly, so they don’t trip you up. But getting your laces tied, does not make you a champion ice skater.” -TF

The Choice

2 Replies

“You decide,” I said. “You decide what you want to improve on.”

The class had just completed a survey, looking at strengths and weaknesses.

“You decide, if you would like to focus on and improve an area of weakness. Or you may decide to focus on and improve an area of strength.

“Correcting a weakness only creates a mediocre performance. Building on a strength creates mastery. You decide what you want to improve upon.” -TF

Not Me?

2 Replies

“I don’t think it’s me,” Marion repeated.

“You are angry at the person who gave you the negative feedback and you would like to ignore the feedback,” I confirmed.

“Besides, even it were true about me, I can’t change, that’s just not me. I couldn’t do it. Out of the question. I don’t see how anyone could do that.”

I looked at Marion. Without a word. Silence.

“But if you could change, what would you do first?” I asked. -TF

Part of the Problem

Leave a reply

Marion’s bottom lip protruded. If she was eleven years old, I would have sworn she was pouting.

“I think I know who said that,” she announced.

“Is it important?” I asked.

“Well, I think they have a chip on their shoulder and this evaluation was just a chance to vent, to make me look bad.”

“Marion, there are positive things in this evaluation, and there are negative things here. You like the positive stuff, but you don’t believe the negative stuff.”

“Well, I think this person has an agenda. I don’t think it’s me,” she continued to protest.

“Do you think that is part of the problem?” -TF

Are They Buying the Work?

Leave a reply

“I try not to think about them,” Gene continued. “We have fifty trucks, they have six trucks in this market. Worse part, they are taking work for way less than us. Sometimes, I think they aren’t here to make money. I think they are here just to make us look like bad guys.”

“So, they are taking work at a lower price to the customer?” I asked.

“Yeah, sometimes, it’s lower than what it costs me. They are buying the work.”

“Let’s look at a couple of things, Gene. First, they don’t have an office over here?”

“No.”

“They don’t have an office over here, so they are using their dispatch people in their home office, using Google maps or something. They are billing people using either credit cards or invoicing from their home office, sending the invoice by fax, email or snail mail.

“They aren’t competing in the Yellow Pages, only on the internet, so their hard advertising costs are less. Gene, I don’t think they are working on a lower margin than you. I think they have figured out a lower cost structure. In fact, even with a lower price to the customer, they may be making more money than you.” -TF

Only Six Trucks From Out of Town

2 Replies

“So, it’s important to be Number One or Number Two in our market. I get that. Third or Fourth place just creates a target. Can we use geography to narrow our market definition? I mean, as a local supplier, we have an advantage. We can honestly say that we are Number One in our local market,” Gene explained.

“Yes, if your market is truly a local market. But, Gene, I gotta tell you, I have seen some trucks rolling around town from a new competitor I haven’t seen before,” I replied.

“Yeah, I know who they are. Their headquarters are on the other side of the state. They don’t do any local advertising. I think they are depending on the internet to get their leads. They show up pretty heavy in search engines. But, still, they’re from out of town.”

“Gene, I visited their yard. They don’t have an office, but they have six trucks in your local market.” -TF

The Crumbs Will Disappear

2 Replies

“Yes, we have a couple of competitors, big competitors, but they pretty much leave us alone. We’re much too small in the market to be more than a thorn in their side,” Gene explained.

“So, as the overall market contracts and the Top Competitors’ revenues get pinched, where do you think they will go, to hold on to market share,” I asked.

“Well, we always hope they will fight with each other,” Gene continued.

“Why would the Top Competitor in the market fight with Number Two when they can just come in and take out Number Four or Number Five?”

Gene sat up in his chair, suddenly uncomfortable. “Well, Number Four would be us. And they have always left us alone. After all, we just pick up the crumbs that fall off of their cake. Why would the Top Dog want to come after us?”

“Why would the Top Competitor want to spend a lot of money, energy and resources fighting with Number Two, when they can take your customers without a whimper?” I asked again.

I could see Gene’s eyes tracing this chess game in his mind. “Look, Gene,” I continued. “In any market, when times are good, it’s easy to be Number Four, living off the crumbs. But, when the market gets tight, the only place to be is Number One or Number Two. Number Three and Number Four will have their heads handed to them.” -TF

Free Prize Inside

Leave a reply

It’s been a great week with a number of comments posted about Performance Appraisals. My bias is, absolutely, it is the responsibility of the Manager to make judgments about the effectiveness of each team member.

Many of my clients have found a 360 degree approach helpful, so much so, that we were asked to create a web-based application to ensure confidentiality. It allows for perspectives from multiple points of view and provides a platform for a very frank discussion. Here’s the way it works.

I usually allow the subject to select approximately fifty percent of the respondents to the survey, then as the Manager, I backfill the other fifty percent of respondents.

Once the surveys are collected and confidentially compiled by the website, I print a copy for subject and schedule the conversation. I use a highlighter to mark comments that are similar from one respondent to the next. An isolated observation may not mean much, but two similar comments get my attention and three or more similar comments might mark a trend.

Then we talk. At the conclusion of our conversation, I ask the subject to write up three things they commit to start doing and three things they commit to stop doing.

If you would like to see how this works for your team, you can try one out at the following link.

www.360tool.com

Squabbles and Disagreements

Leave a reply

“Our company has adopted something called Management by Objectives. MBO they call it,” Sara reported.

“And why did your company adopt that strategy?” I asked.

“There were some who said that our appraisal system was too subjective, that it needed to be measurable. So everyone had to sit down and make up some objectives.”

“And why do you think your company made that decision?”

“Some of the managers were uncomfortable making judgments about a team member’s performance. There were squabbles, disagreements and the whole thing turned into a big distraction.”

“And how is MBO working out for you?”

“Well, it has just as many downsides as the old system,” Sara replied. “Some people get so focused on their own Objectives, they forget about the other people they work with. Cooperation gets stopped dead in its tracks. And sometimes the Objectives are not really in the control of the team member. We seem to spend more time talking about how unfair the system is than we do about improving individual effectiveness.”