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.

Uninterrupted Time

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Travis had too many important things hanging at the end of the day. Your responses were helpful and from different angles.

There was a recommendation for a book, Getting Things Done, delegation and identifying “time eaters.”

One insightful idea had to do with segmenting larger projects into smaller pieces. Travis may find it easier to complete small pieces over a couple of days rather than avoiding the large daunting project that looms on his schedule.

Gail gets the book Power of Attitude by Mac Anderson for her explanation of reserving uninterrupted quiet time. As a Manager what impact can you have on your Key Result Areas if you had just one hour of uninterrupted time each week? What if you had two hours each week?

What if you had two hours each day?

Gail has some great ideas. Read her entire response along with the rest of the comments. Good stuff. -TF

What’s Your Discipline

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Travis looked at me over the rim of his glasses. I had just explained the time management principle of working through a task completely before starting the next task. He was skeptical. “I can’t ever get anything finished before I have to start on the next thing,” he lamented.

“Of course you can’t. The modern American manager gets interrupted every nine minutes. It is not unusual for you to have multiple tasks going on simultaneously. But the principle is still the principle. At the end of the day, how many tasks are still left hanging?”

“Want to know the truth?” Travis continued, assuming that I did. “If I start ten things today, only two will get finished and eight will be left hanging for tomorrow. So, then I will have eight things to start with, plus ten more things tomorrow. Two things will get finished, so I will have sixteen things to carry over to the next day. It’s no wonder I am always behind.”

“So, do you think that no one else has this problem?”

“No, I guess not,” Travis replied.

“Then why do some people get things accomplished while others get mired down and hopelessly behind?”

And that’s the question for today. How do you get things accomplished while others get hopelessly behind? What is your discipline of time management? Best idea gets a signed copy of The Power of Attitude by Mac Anderson. -TF

Make Sure the Work Gets Done

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Nicole was still stymied over our discussion about the role of the supervisor. “But if I am not actively working on the line with everyone else, I don’t feel like I have accomplished anything at the end of the day.”

“Nicole, let’s talk about the value-add of the supervisor. While your team members do the work, your job is to make sure the work gets done. The value you bring to the party as the supervisor is that the work is complete, at the target volume, at the defined quality standard and on time. To make that happen, your job is to schedule the appropriate materials, schedule the appropriate team members and make sure the right machines are available. Your value-add is consistency, thoroughness (no gaps) and completeness (the job gets finished).

“The Mom and Pop just starting out doesn’t have to worry about that stuff. They just have to finish today’s job for today’s customer. As organizations grow, as volume increases and there are more customers than you can count with fingers and toes, these are the issues that make or break a company. Is the right volume of product (or service) produced, of consistent quality, on time? Successful supervisors are responsible for taking the organization to that next level. It is a different sense of accomplishment, yet critical for the company to grow.” -TF

Push Me, I Will Go Faster

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I was on Henrik’s wheel. We had eight miles to go with 43 miles behind us. I was thinking, as long as Henrik kept this pace, I could hang on. If he went faster, I was toast. One thing was certain. I could not handle another shift on the front. My legs were rubber.

Henrik pulled to the left, sat up and looked over. No way, I said to myself. I can’t. Henrik just stared at me. I stood on my pedals and dug in, pulling ahead. Henrik fell in behind allowing me to block the wind for the next stretch of road.

Sometimes I ride by myself, but I never get the workout, I never get the push unless I ride with someone else. Left to our own devices, we coast when it’s convenient, dog the hill with some justification about the heat or the wind.

Push me and I will go faster, challenge me and I will find that bit of energy left that I did not know I had.

Everyone needs a coach. -TF

No Pizza

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Nicole’s team beat yesterday’s numbers. “Nicole, I want to add another element to your day. I want you to add three 5-minute huddles with your team. One in the morning, one after the mid-morning break and one at the afternoon break.

“In this meeting, I want you to go over the numbers from yesterday. If we beat yesterday, I want you to give your team a complimentary remark. No pizza. No days off. Just a little appreciation.

“Use these meetings to focus your team on the goal.” -TF

Improvement Over Yesterday

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Nicole had the numbers posted. She was still working side by side, helping on the line, but at least the numbers were posted.

“But, we didn’t make our goal numbers. That’s why I was afraid to write them on the white board,” Nicole defended.

I ignored her body language. “Nicole, I want you to add another number to your white board. I want you to post yesterday’s numbers next to the goal numbers. For right now, I just want you to focus your team on improvement over yesterday.”

“Well, that should be easy,” snorted Nicole.

“That’s the point. Make improvement easy. Then focus on it.” -TF

Juggling and Pacing

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In response to Monday’s post about Nicole and her new supervisory role, we received this comment from Gail.

Just because you place an individual in a leadership or supervisory role does not necessary mean that they are fully prepared. This is especially true for individuals that have moved up the ranks to leadership. They are still working as a worker and not a supervisor or manager. I believe it is important to give leadership and management training to all managers no matter what level they are on for reinforcement. Nicole just needed some leadership training and she could have been more successful a lot sooner.

I find the preparation for most supervisors is non-existent. Most companies don’t have the first clue what they truly expect from their supervisors much less how to train for it. Supervision is a coordinator’s role, juggling materials and schedules, pacing production to meet targets, keeping bottlenecks loaded up front so they’re never idle. Supervision is knowing your team, who is not feeling well today, who busted up with their girlfriend, whose car broke down on the way to work. It is a totally different role than running a machine or doing finish work on a cabinet. Training is more than important. It is essential. More on Nicole tomorrow. -TF

Stop Doing That Work

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Nicole was complaining. Her department was behind. She was working 10-12 hours per day and could never seem to get ahead. She thought her boss should appreciate her efforts and hard work, but instead, she got quite the opposite. He was disappointed in her performance and intended to follow-up on her numbers every two weeks instead of once a month.

“What am I supposed to do?” she said. “I get here an hour early and leave an hour after my team has gone home. It seems, they are always pulling me into the weeds. I just can’t get anything done.”

“Tell me about the weeds part. How does your team drag you into the weeds?”

“They always need help. I try to work alongside them for most of the day, but then I cannot get my stuff done.”

“Then, stop!” I said. “You are the supervisor. You are there to make sure the work gets done, NOT to work alongside your team. If they have a problem, help them through it, but then get back to your responsibilities. You are supposed to do production counts three times during your shift so you can know if you are ahead or behind. That’s your job. Your team is not meeting its daily production and they don’t even know it.”

I continued, “I will be back tomorrow. I want to see the 10 o’clock count and the 2:30 count posted on the white board. We will work from there.” -TF

Is it a Challenge?

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Jeremy was having difficulty with one of his best team members. Louis had always been Jeremy’s “go to” guy, but lately, things were different.

“Jeremy, when you decide on a project to delegate, how do you decide who to give it to?”

“Well, that used to be easy. Louis was always my guy. He could handle almost anything. My dad used to say, if you need something done, give it to someone who is busy because they will get it done faster than anyone else.”

“How is that working for you?”

“Not so good. Lately, Louis has been, well, not slipping, but, he just isn’t hopping like he was, even six months ago. I am beginning to wonder if he even likes working here anymore.”

“Think about the last delegation you gave to Louis. How much of a challenge was it for him?”

“Well, for Louis it was piece of cake. He should have been able to do it in his sleep with one hand tied behind his back.”

“Jeremy, I want you to think about something. Is it possible that you should have given that delegation to someone else and considered something more challenging for Louis? For delegation to be successful, the team member must see the task as a challenge.” -TF

A Different Skill Set

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In response to Wednesday’s post, Sean writes:

How does someone make this leap from technician to manager? I see it all the time in IT, and I think it’s why there are so many bad managers out there. Isn’t this the Peter Principle, where people are promoted to their level of incompetence?

It’s more than a leap. It is a completely different skill set. The technician is an expert in a technical skill. The technician does the work.

One stratum above is the supervisor. The supervisor does NOT do the work. The supervisor makes sure the work is done; completely, accurately, no missing segments and on time. The tools of the supervisor are checklists and schedules. This is not a subtle concept and most companies don’t get it.

The role of the supervisor is coordination. It is not that people are promoted to their level of incompetence. Brilliant technicians are promoted to a role where they are expected to use a skill set they have not developed and the company is not prepared to train. There are so many bad managers out there because companies do not know how to train managers. -TF