Category Archives: Accountability

Create the System

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“But, we got the parts in and shipped the units. I thought we handled that quite well,” protested Valerie.

“You are right, your supervisor did a good job. That’s what supervisors do. But your work, as a manager, was not done,” I replied. “The job of the manager is to create the system. When you discovered you would be short of parts, it was your supervisors job to go find the parts, but it was your job to ask

  • Why didn’t our system anticipate this shortage?
  • Why didn’t our system detect this shortage as soon as the order was placed into our system?
  • Why didn’t our system spot our supplier’s inventory and indicate a shortfall in those parts?
  • Why didn’t our system have alternate vendors for those critical parts?
  • Why didn’t our system continually track alternate supplier inventories to find odd lots at aggressive pricing?

“The job of the manager is to create the systems, monitor the systems, improve the systems. It’s great that we have a supervisor who knows how to scramble. But I prefer a system that responds to our constantly changing circumstances. The role of the manager is to create those systems.” -TF

Lucky Break

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“Then what is my role, as the manager?” Valerie asked. “I do all the same stuff as the supervisor, it’s just that most of the time, I handle the bigger problems.”

“Bigger problems, like what?” I followed.

“Like last week, we had a large order for a customer, an international customer, and one of the components from a supplier was defective, 500 units we had to reject. The customer is screaming because he has already sold the first three shipments that we can’t deliver.”

“What did you do, as the manager?”

“Well, I scrambled around and found 500 units from a supplier in California. In fact, they were leftover stock and we got them cheaper than our normal supplier.”

“Why didn’t your supervisor locate them for you?” I asked.

Valerie looked sideways. “Well, actually he did. I said I scrambled, meaning my supervisor scrambled. He is the one who found the parts. It was kind of a lucky break that solved the problem.”

“So your supervisor did his job, as a supervisor, and you failed to do your job as a manager.”

Valerie looked puzzled. -TF

Accurate and Complete

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This short conversation with Valerie was moving toward the near side of frustration for her.

“Look,” I said, “the role of the supervisor and the role of the manager are distinctly different. It’s not that one is smarter or has more experience, but they bring separate and necessary value to what we do as an organization.

“The role of the supervisor is to make sure the work gets done. The tools are schedules, checklists and meetings. The value-add is accuracy, completeness and timeliness. It’s the role of the supervisor to make sure the entire project is complete, not ninety five percent, that there are no gaps in service and, at the end of the day, the project meets the customer’s specifications and deadlines.

“That’s the role of the supervisor.” -TF

Can’t Explain

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“So, what you are telling me is that you were overpaying lead technicians under the guise of supervisor. And you couldn’t figure out why they all underperformed?” I asked.

Valerie was shaking her head. They were in the process of hiring three managers to replace six supervisors.

“Well, it’s hard to explain,” she began. “I mean, I think the biggest difference between a supervisor and a manager, is just more experience and we have to pay a manager more. But they should do a better job and be able to handle more.”

“Handle more, what?”

“You know, handle more!” Valerie exclaimed.

“Valerie, if you can’t explain it to me, how will you explain it to your new managers, I mean supervisors.”

Valerie looked for help from the ceiling, then to her right. “We just need someone who can do a better job, I don’t know how to explain it any better than that.”

“So, you are going to try to hire someone with a bit more experience who still may not be right for the job?” -TF

Not a Chance

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“That’s why we decided to get rid of our six supervisors and hire three managers to replace them,” Valerie explained. “The three managers will work with a lead technician on each crew.”

“Tell me why you eliminated the supervisor layer?” I asked.

“They weren’t really doing the job. At the pay rate, we weren’t getting our money’s worth. We think if we pay a little bit more, we can get a better person. That’s why we decided having three managers would be better than having six supervisors.”

“Valerie, I am a bit disturbed about the way you have structured the accountabilities. Let’s talk about the general expectations of a supervisor, you know, the ones you decided to get rid of.

“The primary role of the supervisor is to make sure the work gets done,” I continued. “The primary tools of the supervisor are schedules, checklists and meetings. It is the job of the supervisor to anticipate the required volume of work, make sure we have the right amount of materials on-hand to complete the tasks, schedule the proper equipment and assign the right number of people. During the day, as tasks are being completed, it is the job of the supervisor to monitor progress toward the daily goal.”

Valerie was almost laughing. “Well, I can tell you that is definitely NOT what our supervisors were doing, not even close.”

“And that’s not all,” I continued. “Supervisors should be looking ahead specifically to tomorrow and the rest of the week. They should be reviewing production demand for the rest of the month, making sure materials will be on-hand, that equipment will be available and that we have sufficient personnel.”

Valerie was smiling but shaking her head. “Not a chance,” she replied.

Too Many Directions

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“So, it’s okay to be a working manager?” Wes asked.

“In a small organization, it almost always happens that way,” I replied. “As a manager, you may have four or five supervisors reporting to you. At the same time, you may have to supervise one of the processes yourself. It could be a matter of economics, or just that you cannot find the right person to fill the role.”

“That’s exactly the way it works, now.” Wes looked relieved.

“But, there’s a problem, being a part time manager and a part time supervisor,” I warned.

The look of relief on Wes’ face was temporary. He knew it was too good to be true. I waited.

“You’re right. Being part time manager and part time supervisor, I feel like I am being pulled in too many different directions. One of my supervisors comes to me with a question and I can’t listen, because I have my own work to do.”

“And when you don’t have time to listen, are you bringing value to the thinking and work of that supervisor who has a question?” -TF

Discretionary Duties

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From the Ask Tom mailbag:

Question:

I help supervise a young man at my company. He has a grating voice, a false sense of his own skill level, often fishes for complements on average work and tries to tell others how they should be doing their jobs. He is truly the most annoying person I’ve ever encountered. That being said, he works a shift no one else wants to work and does an o.k. job with a lot of direction from co-workers.

Response:

A false sense of his own skill level is not such a bad thing. Between you and me, let’s call it self-confidence, perhaps over-confidence. Some managers may try to adjust a person’s over-confidence by calling them out, chopping them off at the knees or otherwise belittling them. Waste of time. In fact, counterproductive.

Marcus Buckingham, in his book, The One Thing You Need to Know describes a superb managerial response. He assumes that, in some cases, over-confidence may actually be helpful in the face of a true challenge. So, rather than try to adjust this young man’s confidence level, spend time asking him to articulate the difficulties of doing a high quality job in his role with the company.

Most people underestimate the real difficulties, which contributes to over-confidence and also contributes to under-performance. Your job, as a Manager is to help the person explore those difficulties.

I once spent three successive days with a CNC operator, whose job was to cut sheet metal using a machine from the plasma cutting table manufacturers. Each day, for a half an hour, he would explain things to me. We started with his prescribed duties, cutting metal and meeting quota for the day. That was a quick discussion.

The rest of the time, we talked about his discretionary duties. It was up to his discretion how he organized his materials in front of the machine. It was his discretion to listen for funny noises coming from the machine. It was his discretion to collect and dispose of scrap coming out of the back of the machine.

Funny, it was those discretionary things that made the difference between a good operator and a great operator. What do you think? After three days, totaling ninety minutes of conversation, explaining things to me, do you think he was a better operator? -TF

Enough is Now

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In response to yesterday’s Ask Tom, if a new team member is still struggling after five months, it’s time for graduation. Excellent comments were posted by Michelle Malay Carter, Varun Malhotra and Chris Young. Read the comments here.

My turn.

You have two things working against. Both need to be fixed, though it’s too late for this person.

First, you have difficulty making the termination decision because the performance standards for the role have not been set. Everyone knows this person is underperforming, but without a standard, we are all left with only our opinions. Tough to terminate someone based on an opinion without a standard.

So, take this opportunity to create a standard. Heck, create a certification process. Get your team involved to create a performance protocol. All new hires should be considered to be on probation until they meet the standard. Set a time limit and move on.

Second, you don’t have anyone waiting in the wings. If you had too many people vying for that chair, the decision would be much easier to make. For this position, you need to be trading up. -TF

When is Enough, Enough?

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Greetings from Toronto.
From the Ask Tom mailbag:

Question:

I was recently promoted to supervisor. It’s been a challenge, but I definitely think I can grow into the role and learn to handle it successfully.

Before I was promoted, a new technician was hired. It has been almost 5 months since, yet he is still in training. That’s 5 times longer than any other new hire we’ve had. Other technicians who are working with and “shadowing” him in training continue to report that they do not trust his ability to proficiently handle his duties. With my own firsthand observation, I feel the same way. Had I been promoted earlier, I would have strongly objected to his hiring.

It’s always the same story: the job required a stronger technical background than he thought so it’ll take him longer, and he will continue to do his best to learn the ropes and gain the trust of the other employees. He cannot provide a timeframe when he thinks he would be ready.

If it were strictly up to me, I’d get rid of him. Keeping him diverts technicians and resources from other projects, costs the company his hourly wage, and most likely lowers our customer satisfaction ratings as many of our callers quickly pick up on the fact that he is “new” and unsure of himself. My manager, however, would prefer not to take that route, for fear of the consequences that can follow termination. Yet, I feel like he’s pressuring me when he says things like “He STILL isn’t ready yet? He’s been here for 5 months! Why is it taking so long?”

What should I do? Would I be justified in setting a deadline by which he must become proficient? When should I say “enough is enough?”

Response:

Actually, I am curious about how others see this. Please add a comment below. -TF

In a Pinch, He’s Great

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“Are you having fun with all this?” I asked, smiling behind a very serious intent.

“Hell, no,” Gerald replied. “I’m ready to just ditch the guy. But he has eight years of good performance in his file, easy enough to get along with, always shows up as a team player. I don’t know how I would document his deficiencies to fire him. I can’t even get his production reports.”

“Let’s think about the problem, again. Let’s go over the facts. You have an eight year employee, always a team player, positive attitude that you promoted to Manager.”

“Yes,” Gerald agreed.
“Before you promoted him, did he ever display behavior that demonstrated competence as a Manager?”

Gerald’s face turned puzzled. “What does that mean? He was one of our best supervisors. He could make things happen in a heart beat. My top pick if we ever got in a jam. He could handle two walkie-talkies, a cell phone and drive a fork-lift at the same time.” Gerald stopped. “Well, not that we allow people to talk on the phone and drive fork-lifts, but you know what I mean.”

“So, in a pinch, when things get hectic, he’s your man?” I confirmed.

“What is different about being a Manager?” -TF