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.

Because They Can

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“Emily, why does a race car driver press the metal in excess of 200 mph to win a race?” I asked. We were talking about habits and how habits create outcomes. “Why does a singer perform on stage? Why does an ice skater reach their peak in international competition? Why does a manager manage?”

Emily knew there was a very specific answer to this question, so she waited.

“They all do those things because they can. They have spent great periods of their life creating the habits to support the skills that drive them to the top. They reach high levels of competence because they practiced, tried and failed, gotten better and practiced some more, with a discipline to master those skills. They perform at a high level because they can. The great numbers who have not mastered those skills, who are not competent, were eliminated in the first round.

“Those who achieve mastery are a select few. And that includes effective managers.

“It is a discipline of habits to achieve competency. For a manager, these habits support the leadership skills necessary to be effective. And that is where we will start.” -TF

Choosing Outcomes

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“It’s an inward journey.” Emily and I were talking about her next level as a manager. “Emily, you have the desire to move, but desire alone is not sufficient.”

Emily shifted to the edge of the chair. Anticipation. “Okay, I’m game. I want to be able to make things come out better, make my team better, make myself better. I want to make a difference. I want to change the outcome.”

“Emily, we don’t choose the way things turn out. Our habits do. And we choose our habits. If you want to know how to influence others, you have to first understand how you choose your own habits.” -TF

Difficult to See

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Emily nodded. “I think I am ready.” We were talking about her dissatisfaction with the way things were going for her as a manager. Not that they were going badly.

“Sometimes, I think I have to force things,” she said. “And forcing things doesn’t last long. I want to know how I can get people to perform, to perform at a higher level.”

“You want to know how you can cause people to change?”

“Yes, that’s it. Exactly. How can I get people to perform better, to stay focused, to pay attention, heck, just to show up on time would be nice.”

“So, Emily, when you look at yourself, how easy is it for you to make changes about your own life, your own work?”

“I’m not sure what you mean,” she replied. “Things are pretty well with me. For the most part, things are under control.”

“Interesting,” I said. “We think we have the ability to cause change in other people when we have great difficulty seeing the need for change within ourselves.” -TF

The Student is Ready

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Emily was ready. She was promoted to manager two years ago and her performance was above average. “I am ready for the next level,” she said. “I am not satisfied with things. I know there is more to being a manager than management. What is the difference between management and leadership?”

I hate that question.

I hate the question because it appears to promote a difference. In the end, to be a successful manager requires leadership. While we talk about the difference, the purpose of that conversation is integration. Successful management requires leadership. Leadership is necessary.

“Emily, you have been a manager for a couple of years, now. What exactly, are you dissatisfied about?” I asked.

“There are times, when it seems, I am only able to get people to do what I want by forcing them to do it. By being a bully, or threatening. Not directly threatening, but, you know, do it or else.”

“And how does that work?”

“Not well,” she replied. “I may get some short term compliance, but as soon as I leave the room, it’s over.”

“Emily, the pressure that people are not willing to bring on themselves is the same pressure you are trying to tap into. If they are not willing to bring it on themselves, what makes you think you have the ability to overcome that?”

“But that’s my job, isn’t it?”

“Indeed. And managing your way to it, will get you where you are today. Leadership is a different journey. And I believe you are ready.” -TF

Perfectly Equipped

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I looked at the breakout session on the hotel marquee. Today in the Yeehaw Room was a symposium on Best Practices.

I smiled.

Best Practices are necessary but not sufficient.

Past experience may be helpful, but seldom covers all the bases. Past experience seldom anticipates all the change. Past experience often misses critical elements that will be different in the future.

Best Practices are what we teach in school. Those who live by Best Practices will find themselves perfectly equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists. Accomplishment always happens in the future. -TF

This Guitar is Out of Tune

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Marvin was not in his office when I arrived. It didn’t take long to find him among a group of people desperately trying to solve a problem with a machine on the floor.

“It’s always something,” Marvin said. “Just when we get one problem solved, it seems like some other variable goes out of whack. We are trying to figure out why this thing won’t maintain the pressures we need.”

“When did all this start?”

“Weird, it started just a couple of months ago. We have been making these units this way for ten years. We have tweaked almost every parameter and this guitar is so out of tune, it sounds sick.”

“So, what are the factory defaults on the unit? What are the baselines?” I asked. Marvin just stood there. You could see the blood draining from his face. They had been working on this problem for two months, trying to figure out how to adjust the machine.

“Sometimes,” I continued, “we have to clear the decks and go back to square one.” Twenty minutes later, after restoring the defaults and making three adjustments, the machine was holding tolerance. For the first time in two months.

Often, the problem we are trying to solve is the wrong problem. -TF

The Perfect Trap

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From the Ask Tom mailbag:

As a follow-up question regarding the necessity for a Manager to think into the future.

Question:

The question(s) are: How do you determine the time frame that a manager should be thinking into the future? Given your garden-variety project, do you figure out “lead time” for the group? Example: team has to prepare documents for an audit in two weeks, we have an existing pool of docs to update. You’ve discussed this in the past, however your thoughts would be appreciated.

Response:

This question sets the perfect trap for the manager with short term thinking. Of course, this short term project has to be completed prior to the two week deadline. But here is what a manager needs to be thinking about.

What audit projects do I anticipate receiving during the next twelve months? What is the scope of those projects, how long will they take and what technical work is necessary? If I chart out a timeline of the number of projects over the next twelve months, how many overlap, or are there quiet periods in between?

Who will I need on my team to do the technical work, the research, the preparation and the review? Who will I need to perform the administrative work of tracking all of the elements and packaging the audit when the work is completed?

Who do I have on my staff now and who do I need to recruit? What impact will that have on my budget, in terms of expense to the anticipated revenue? When do I place the ads, when do I interview and when do I make the hires?

How long will training take to get these people up to speed to perform this audit work? Who will do the training?

All of these questions require way more than two weeks. These are the issues for the successful manager. The typical timespan (working into the future) for any working manager is twelve months. -TF

But, what about today?

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“But, what about today?” asked Kristen. “It’s great to think about the future, but I have to get stuff done today.”

In class, we had been talking about how a manager has to think differently.

“The anchor for the manager has to be some specific time point in the future. Every action we take only has meaning related to that future time point. Call it planning, call it a milestone, call it a goal.

“You are right. You have to get stuff done today. Action occurs today. The role of the manager is to inspect that future time point and create today’s effective action. Here is the question. What is the destination, and what is the most effective action we can take, today, to get there?” -TF

Into the Future

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We kicked off a new management program last week. With every class, I have a new manager, recently promoted, on the cusp of a brand new role.

“What’s the biggest difference? What will change for me? What do I have to learn?” The questions reveal the chasm, a chasm that requires a journey full of twists, turns and decisions to be made.

“The biggest difference,” I begin, “is time span. As a manager, you will begin to think further into the future.

“As a team leader of a crew, you might think about what needs to be produced this week. As a new supervisor, you also have to think about what the schedule looks like for two weeks. The big project three weeks from now will require more prep and staging time.

“As a new manager, you have to think about your system that captures forecast data and translates that data into materials, people, equipment and timelines.

“Becoming a manager, at any level, requires you to think further into the future, using your own discretionary judgment.” -TF

The Fix

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Kyle was listening, but not sure if he liked what he heard. He wasn’t happy with his team, but it was working exactly as he had designed it. I had suggested the fix was not to work on the team, but to work on the person who designed the team.

“Your team will perform, for better or worse, based on who you are as a leader,” I suggested. “It will not perform better because you are able to fix something gone wrong, or able to decide how many units to produce today. Your team will perform based on who you are.”

“Who I am?” asked Kyle.

“Yes, Kyle. Who are you? Where are you going?” -TF