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.

Organizing Your Thoughts

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More from the Ask Tom mailbag.

Question

Everyday I get more and more information through reading and talking to people, observation etc. My question is, “How do I organize the information I have identified as useful?”

I currently use an Excel file and filters in the worksheets to do it but is there a better way?

Response

Any tools that help you will work, whether they are spreadsheet tools, database tools, or even searchable documents.

First consideration is to determine if the tool is accessible or part of your daily discipline to record the things you want to remember or have access to later.

Second consideration is the ability to quickly search to find what you are looking for. Even my blog works well for this. It is a series of thoughts, set in categories. I can search a specific category if I am looking for something. Even more powerful is the actual search tool built into the blog that lets me search for a key word or phrase.

Finally, you will find that you use different tools for different things. I keep lists in my Palm Pilot for books I want to buy. That way, when I get to the bookstore, my list is always with me. For ideas that I might want to organize into workshops, I find that PowerPoint is very helpful. For very complex ideas, I actually create websites to help me understand the dependencies and linking between ideas and processes. It helps me understand the logic of ideas and what impact one idea may have on another idea.

One tool that we have found very helpful is a tool called a wiki. You can see how it has been used as a collaborative tool by visiting the following link:

www.wikipedia.org. This actually allows other people to help piece ideas together. -TF

If you would like to ask Tom a question, follow the link to the right.

A Sequence of Many Skills

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From the Mailbag at Ask Tom

Question

What are some delegation skills?

Response

Delegation is really a sequence of skills. The sequence starts with identifying the person for the delegation. As delegation is your most powerful people development tool, the selection process requires both coaching and mentoring skills.

Successful delegations involve skills in both planning and goal setting. Communication skills are important during the delegation meeting, to make sure that expectations are clearly understood. Follow-up and evaluation skills are important as the delegation progresses, to determine course adjustments toward the final delivery in the delegation.

So you see, delegation is not a single skill, but a sequence of separate skills put together for a specific purpose. -TF

If you would like to ask Tom a question, follow the link to the right that says -Ask Tom-.

Indefinitely Suspended

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Sam was turning schizophrenic on me. One minute, he was sure he was going to terminate Alex, the next minute he was sure the team could not live without him. True, Alex was a top performer, on top of the productivity list every month.

But, he was such a pistol to be around. He was arrogant, and he let everyone know it. It’s not that he was simply loud and boisterous, but even in one-on-one conversation, he was always stirring things up.

I told Sam to look at the sports page from over the weekend. Sam is not the only one struggling with this issue. The Philadelphia Eagles have indefinitely suspended Terrell Owens for -conduct detrimental to the team-.

“Sam, understand that Terrell Owens is one of only 6 NFL players ever to make 100 touchdown catches. Yet the Eagles know that his attitude and behavior off the football field causes more problems to the team than his superior athletic performance on the field.

“Your difficulty with Alex may be a deal killer,” I continued. “It is a tough call to make, but sometimes the individual contribution of a single team member is outweighed by the damage done to the rest of the team.” -TF

Not a Gift, but Something Earned

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As a young project manager, Mario had been successful at meeting the deadline and holding profit margins on each of the four projects he completed. Paul, his manager, wanted to give him a promotion, but was gun-shy.

The last project manager Paul promoted had done well on smaller projects, but the responsibilities of longer range projects had overwhelmed him. In the end, Paul had to let him go. It was almost as if the promotion ruined a good junior project manager.

“You don’t test a person’s time span by promoting them,” I said. “Though not impossible, it is very difficult to backtrack a promotion. Instead, test a person’s time span by giving them longer range projects to work on. Only if they are successful, do they get the corner office.

“Don’t promote the person to test them. Test the person to earn the promotion.” -TF

Delegation and Time Span

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“My team tells me that I don’t follow-up with them often enough, and that is why I am often disappointed,” complained Sherry. We had been talking about her delegation skills.

“How often is –not often enough-?” I ask.

“It seems to be different for different people.”

“Why do you think that is?”

“I don’t know,” Sherry paused. “One person can just go longer than another person.”

“Sherry, I want you to think in terms of Time Span. Time Span is the length of time that a person can work into the future without your direction, using their own independent discretionary judgment. And each person on your team has a different time span.

“Here is your exercise. Make a list of your team and beside each name, I want you to guess the length of time that each one can work independently. Your guess will be the first benchmark for how long you leave them to work without follow-up. I want you to keep a log. Once each week, for a month, write down your observations of each team member’s time span. We will get together and talk again.” -TF

Drive the Decision Down?

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Question:
What is your opinion on the idea of forcing decision making downward. Do you think downward decision making is desirable?

Response:
It depends. There are a number of factors that will determine this direction. Ultimately, I will hold the manager responsible for the results of any decision that was made. This alone may guide you.

First factor is risk management. How much risk is associated with the result of the decision? If the decision is made poorly, how much damage can be done?

The second factor has to do with purpose. What is the purpose of driving the decision down a level? Is it a learning purpose? Is its purpose to obtain buy-in to the decision? Get clear on the purpose and that will help you determine the direction to move. -TF

Bent Out of Shape

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The pictures look mangled. Well, they are mangled, at least the buildings are. Okay, so are the boats, and yes, there is also a mangled airplane.

I remember an essay about survival of the fittest. It referenced a scientific study, constructed somewhere in Minnesota. What survives?

What survives is not some eloquent species, particularly suited to a harsh element, drought or temperature. What survives is diverse adaptability.

The study focused on some ragtag patch of soil and plants that made it through a variety of conditions that killed off everything else. The surviving flora was distinct only through its diversity and its adaptability.

Power poles don’t adapt much.

“That which does not bend, shall be bent out of shape.”

Hurricane Wilma reminds us what it will take, not just to recover, to survive, but to take hold and thrive again. It will not be some super strength, but our diversity and our adaptability. -TF

Dancing in the Streets

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Mad Max, the movie, provides an insight to the past few days in South Florida. Bands of people, patch together technology to manage a life which can oddly be called normal.

One week after Wilma, half of all schools are still without power and will remain closed for at least two more days. The proliferation of generators has created lines at gas stations by people on foot with gas cans. Others quietly wait by candlelight, taking cold showers and depleting their stock of canned goods. Even this blog has existed by virtue of a power inverter and a dial-up line strung through the window of my car.

“South Florida is nice,” explains a line worker, who has just descended from a power pole. “At least here, when we restore the power, people still have a home to hook it up to. They are very appreciative.

“Four weeks ago, in Mississippi, we would heat up the line, but there were no homes left. No cheering. No hoots and hollers. No dancing in the streets.”

Much to be thankful for. -TF

Calm in the Control Center

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Day Five after Hurricane Wilma.

Infrastructure. Things are moving forward because of infrastructure. Look at the systems created by each organization in this cleanup and watch them work. A dispatcher sits at a counter with a permanent line to emergency officials. He rolls out trucks and reassigns crews as work is completed.

There is calm in this control center. It is calm because its systems are working. The planning may be hour by hour, sometimes minute by minute, but it is supported by an infrastructure created a long time ago.

I was talking with Bernard Paul-Hus, president of Hypower Inc. His role at this point is to stand back and let his systems and people work. His type-A personality pushes him to find something active and essential to do in the moment, but his real work in response to Hurricane Wilma was done months ago.

Think about your organization. What kind of infrastructure do you have? Have you built it to be responsive to changing conditions? It doesn’t have to be a natural disaster. You are faced with changing market conditions, new competitors and shifting technologies.

Management lessons become visible from time to time. What can you learn from Wilma that will help your company face its trials in the future? -TF

Like a Music Festival without the Music

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Thursday is Day Four without power. Management lessons become visible. Media lessons become visible.

Watching television is a strange way to pass the time. Local tv stations are doing their level best to whip up controversy. There are some people who have already exhausted their personal supplies, and indeed, they are standing in line. It’s like a music festival without the music. But if you get away from the television, you can see a different picture.

Crews are mobilizing to help get power restored. Entrepreneurs are roaming the streets with chainsaws and pressure washers. Citizens are moving STFO and SSIH in manageable piles so municipal crews can remove it with large mechanical jaws. (STFO – Stuff that fell off. SSIH – Stuff snapped in half.)

I attended a meeting at a local college this morning, its administrative staff and faculty in the foyer organizing how to get classrooms fired back up by next Monday. At another location, response teams are rolling trucks to restock gear and refuel power generators. A barbeque grill churns out hamburgers as each driver packs some food before they disappear for another run.

I think we will survive this. -TF