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.

Erratic or Predictable?

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“But, I give them feedback,” protested Tyler. “They know how to do it right. Why won’t they just do it the way they are supposed to?”

“You want your team members to work the line in a specific sequence in a specific way? You are looking for very specific behaviors?” Tyler nodded his head in agreement.

“When they do it wrong, do you pay attention to them?” I asked.

“Of course. I am usually right on it,” Tyler replied.

“And when they do it right, are you right on it?”

“Well, when they do it right, they just do it right. When they do it right, I don’t yell at them.”

“Tyler, to get desired behaviors, you have to reinforce those behaviors in a positive way. Yelling at people for doing something wrong doesn’t teach them to do it right. Yelling just creates avoidance from doing it wrong. That avoidance behavior can by very erratic and unpredictable. They don’t know whether to scream or eat a banana.

“On the other hand, if you positively reinforce desired behavior, it becomes repeated and predictable.

“So, Tyler, you tell me. What has more value, erratic avoidance behavior or positively reinforced predictable behavior?” -TF

Absolutes and Desirables

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“Okay, so if I am to be accountable for the decision, I should make the decision. I get that.” Victor was still struggling to make sure he was sincerely including his team on major decisions. “But I can’t just pay lip service to team participation. That is why I had them vote in the first place.”

“Is voting the best way to make a decision?” I asked. Victor looked puzzled. I continued. “Look, you want people to truly participate in the process even though you will make the final decision. Here is what I want you to try.

“Take a flipchart and draw a vertical line down the middle. Label the left column Absolutes and label the right column Desirables. Now, ask your team to help you fill out the chart.

“For Absolutes, ask what absolutely has to happen as a result of this decision? What are the non-negotiable criteria that we have to consider when making this decision?

“For Desirables, ask what would we like to happen as a result of this decision? What are the outcomes that would be nice, that we should consider when making this decision? And which of these desirable outcomes are the most important? Have your team prioritize these.

“Victor, if you go through an analysis like this, your decision will make a lot more sense than voting. It will be based on a logical process, in which your team actively participates. This is not lip service. This is real.” -TF

Whose Decision Is It?

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Victor was staring at the floor, head cupped in both hands. “What a stupid decision.” He was quiet. I was quiet. Silence can do a lot of heavy lifting.

Finally, he continued. “I want to involve my team in decision making. But when we take a vote, they often make the wrong decision. As their manager, I feel like a heel, going against their vote. But I don’t want to let them do something stupid and waste a bunch of time.” He lifted his head.

“Victor, first, do not let them vote. Between you and your boss, who is accountable for this decision?”

“Well, I am,” he said.

“If you are held accountable for the decision, then you have to make the decision. You can involve your team, ask them for input, but you are the manager, the decision is yours to make. Here is what this sounds like to your team.

“Hey, Team. As your manager, I have a decision to make. This is an important decision and will have an impact on every team member here. So, I want to you to help me consider all the angles. After I consider your input, I have to make this decision. When I do make this decision, I will need your support and your full efforts to make this happen. So, who has the first idea?

“Victor, understand, people will support a world they help to create, even if it is not totally their idea. You should involve them, but the decision is yours. And you will be the person I hold accountable.” -TF

State of Confusion

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“I just don’t understand,” said Chris. “Our productivity is on a downhill slide and when I walk the shop floor, not a single person seems to know what is going on. They all seem confused.”

“And who is responsible for the confusion?” I asked.

Chris stopped. He was hoping the answer had someone else’s name on it.

“Chris, high productivity does not come from a state of confusion. One of the most important activities of a manager is to create crystal clear expectations. Ambiguity kills productivity. So, what are you going to do?” I asked.

Chris’ mind began to churn. “I guess I am going to start by having a meeting to make sure everyone knows what is expected.” -TF

Repeated Patterns of Behavior

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Jeremy was trying to figure out what went wrong in the interview process. This was beginning to look like a bad hire. “We finally got it out of him. After fifteen minutes of probing in the interview, we discovered his experience that we needed to fill the job requirement. But this guy has been on the job for three weeks, now, and he doesn’t seem to have a clue.”

“In the interview process,” I replied, “if the behavior is frequent, examples should come from the candidate easily. If you have to really probe and dig, it is likely the behavior is not frequent; in fact, the pattern of behavior may be only occasional, even rare. If this is a critical behavior for the position, you may have the wrong guy.

“So, if you are the interviewer, ask for an example. If it comes easily, ask for another example. If it comes easily, ask for another example. These examples will likely establish a pattern of behavior. In the interview we are looking for repeated patterns of behavior.” -TF

Still Have to Have the Conversation

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“I just don’t understand,” said Harry, “Four weeks ago, we introduced an incentive program for efficiency on the shop floor, and so far, I haven’t seen any improvement at all. What are we doing wrong?”

“In the past four weeks, since you introduced this incentive program, how many meetings have you held to talk about efficiency?” I asked.

“Meetings? That is why we started the incentive program, so we wouldn’t have to have meetings, so we wouldn’t have to spend time talking about it. With the money we put out there, they should be able to figure some things out, shouldn’t they?”

“Just because you have put up some money to achieve a specific result, doesn’t mean that you don’t have to talk about it. Some behaviors will help efficiency, some behaviors may not, some behaviors may even work against efficiencies. You have an incentive program, but you still have to have the conversation.

“I want you to think about this. Even if you did not have an incentive program, wouldn’t the conversation still be critical? Wouldn’t it be valuable to talk about positive behaviors that work for us and other behaviors that work against us?” -TF

Fatal Mistake

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From the “Ask Tom” mailbag.

Question – CC writes, “What are the analytic skills needed for decision making that will help a manager in problem solving?”

Response – The most frequent fatal mistake made by a manager is jumping to a solution without considering alternatives. There are several tools that can help you make better decisions. My favorite tool is a simple set of three questions.

1. What is the problem?
2. What are the possible solutions to the problem?
3. Which is the best solution?

This is a simple process that can be used alone by the manager or in a brain-storm session with the help of a team. This process can be used quickly for problems that require an immediate solution or can be used over an extended period of time for complicated issues. It is also simple to teach to supervisors so they can use it with their teams.

The power of this process is that it prevents the frequent fatal mistake, jumping to a solution without considering other alternatives. The discipline of using this simple three step process will have a positive impact on the quality of decisions made by a manager.

What would happen in your organization, if every time a decision had to be made, people stopped long enough to ask these three questions? -TF

If you have a question about management, just use the link to the right. Thanks to CC for this question.

Connect Today to Tomorrow

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“I don’t know, I just give them something to do. If they do it, maybe I will give them something else. They usually don’t step up to the plate, so I am often disappointed.” Randy shook his head.

We had been talking about emerging managers. If we can identify who they might be, then what do we do with them. How do we move them, how do we stretch them, challenge them?

Randy continued, “You would think that if they were really supervisor material, they would just pick things up and get them done. But they don’t.”

My eyes narrowed a bit. “In my experience, people don’t often think about the longer term. They think about today and that’s about it. As their manager, you often have to stretch their interest to the future. If you want them to step up to the plate, you have to ask them what their picture of the future looks like. Getting a person to step up to the plate requires a conversation. It is a conversation that connects today to tomorrow and the week after. It doesn’t start with an expectation on your part. It starts with a conversation.” -TF

Yesterday, I asked for your observations about Emerging Managers. Thanks to all those who posted their insights. I am sending a book to Linda Hedges for her contribution.

Emerging Managers

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“How do you identify emerging managers in your organization? As you look around your team, what do you observe, what catches your eye?” I asked everyone to take a minute and write their ideas on a 3×5 card.

Wendy spoke first, “I watch for them in meetings. I look to see, when they speak, do other people listen? It’s funny; I am not listening for something brilliant to come out of their mouth. I observe others’ response to them. For a person to be a leader, someone has to follow.”

Marion was next, “I look for someone who asks questions. It’s easy for a person to just spout off how much they know about this or that. But if someone is asking questions about purpose, why we do things, what is the impact of a process? Not dumb questions, good questions.”

Jeremy raised his hand, “I look for someone who is thinking ahead. We may be working on something right now, but this person is two or three steps ahead, laying out material, staging equipment for the next setup, even if the next setup is tomorrow.”

I am curious. How do you identify emerging managers in your organization? As you look around your team, what do you observe, what catches your eye? Post a comment here. I have a special book on my desk for the best comment.

If you would like to view comments that have already been posted, just click on one of the links at the top of this email. It will take you to the website where you can read them. -TF

Big Fat Secret

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“I admit it. I am struggling. I feel like I am trying to ride two horses at the same time. My boss wants me to take on more responsibility, but I still have all this other work to do. He says I need to let go, but I don’t know who to get to help me.” Rachel was moving up, but needed to identify someone on her staff as an emerging manager to fill in behind.

“Rachel, you say you want this new responsibility?” I waited, though I knew her head would say yes. “Here is a big fat secret. You will never be able to move up in this organization until you have found someone to take over what you do.

“Everyone thinks you cannot move up until you have learned a new skill, but the real constraint is below. You cannot move up until you have identified a person to take over your current responsibilities. And once you find them, you have to train them and test them.

“One of your biggest responsibilities, as a manager, is to find and build a person as your replacement. And it doesn’t happen in a week. You have to be thinking two or three years to the future.” -TF