“Look, Mr. Foster. We have a certain amount of work that has to be done around here and I can’t just sit by and watch these guys go so slow. They just don’t get it. I have been working with them for eight months.” Charlie stopped. He shook his head. He had been trying to get his telephone operators to go paperless. It wasn’t working.

“Did you know that you are a really good phone operator?” I asked.

“I know. I did it for six years before I came over to work here. I am the best. I just wish there was ten of me. This is a busy place.” Charlie seemed off the defensive, now.

“Why do you think the coaching is failing?” I asked.

“Oh, it’s not the coaching,” said Charlie. “It’s the training. We just have so much work to do that we don’t have time to coach. It’s fast paced. These guys just can’t keep up. And the turnover is killing me.”

“Charlie, what happens when a race car driver takes a curve too fast?”

“What?” said Charlie, off guard. He wanted to talk about operator through-put and I was talking about race cars.

“Let’s say there is a straight-away coming up, where we can really blow it out, but we have to negotiate a turn first. What happens if the driver takes the turn too fast?”

“Well, he’s going to hit the wall.” Charlie responded.

“Charlie, sometimes, you have to slow down to go fast.” I waited to let that sink in. “Charlie, tomorrow I want you to schedule one operator per hour to be off the phones and back into coaching. See you at 8:00 sharp.” -TF

“Move over, let me take the console. Why don’t you just watch me?” This is the ultimate in micro-managing. Charlie, the Manager, observing a mistake, simply took the project back under wing and proceeded to do the work himself.

Of course, for the past twelve minutes, Charlie had berated the Team Member for not being fast enough, taking things out of sequence and ultimately falling back to the old way of doing things.

As a Manager, Charlie had been working with Crystal’s training program. The training was designed to get telephone operators to record data in real time on the computer, rather than using paper in a two-step delayed process. In fact, Charlie got the job as the Manager because he had used this real-time process at another company. He was the best telephone operator on their crew. When he came here he picked out the software, but had been unsuccessful in getting the operators to use it. Eight months later, they were still writing paper tickets and entering the data later. If they remembered.

Charlie’s behavior, as a Manager, demonstrated the subtle difference in dealing with mistakes by a micro-manager and a coach. As a micro-manager, Charlie focused on the task and the method (mistakes). The more he focused on the task and the mistakes, the more he drove the operators back to the paper system they were comfortable with.

I let Charlie be a telephone operator for another eight minutes (he was really very good) before I pulled him aside. Tomorrow, listen in to our conversation. -TF

“I wonder what the difference is between coaching and micro-managing. At what point do we provide too much instruction, and hinder the employee’s initiative and autonomy?” responded Brittany.

Coaching and micro-managing focus on two different things. To the casual observer, they may appear similar in manager behavior, but there is a powerful distinction.

Micro-managing is task and method focused. The Manager attempts to get a task completed according to a specific method. The focus is on the task.

Coaching is method and development focused. Task completion is secondary to behavior acquisition and competence in the method. The focus is on the Team Member.

The difference between micro-managing and coaching is purpose and purpose will determine two completely different outcomes. This purpose will drive subtle, yet powerful differences in Manager behavior. This subtle difference will define the poor Manager from the great Manager.

Tomorrow, we will talk about coaching skills through mistakes to see the difference between micro-managing and coaching. -TF

“I’m not trying to show off,” defended Alex. “I have the answer, it’s quicker, it solves the problem. I know it looks like I am a just being a glory hog, but I call it a touchdown.”

I waited. Alex was in no mood to listen, not even to himself. So, I waited some more. Finally, I spoke.

“Alex, three months ago, did we expect you to have the answers to the biggest decisions on your projects?”

“Absolutely, that’s why I got the promotion.”

“Yes, three months ago, we expected you to be the best, the smartest person in the room. That’s why we promoted you to manager. Do you think this is a different game now?”

“I suppose it is or I wouldn’t be sitting here.”

“Alex, the game is different. Before, we expected you to have all the answers. Now you are a manager. We expect you to have all the questions. Instead of being the smartest person, you may have to be the dumbest person. I want you to ask,

What if? By when? Why did that happen? When do we expect to finish? How come that happened? What is stopping us?

“Just a few simple, dumb questions. It’s a different role you are playing, now.” -TF

“I don’t understand,” complained Christopher. “I keep telling them what they are doing wrong and they just keep doing it.”

“Christopher, would you describe that feedback as positive feedback or negative feedback?” I queried.

“Well, it’s hardly positive, so it must be negative,” he replied.

“So, if they won’t listen to negative feedback from you, who, in their life, will they accept it from?”

Chris thought for a minute. “I don’t know, their mother?”

“Unfortunately, they won’t even listen to their mother. There is only one person who can get through to them, only one person who can voice negative feedback that they will listen to.” I stopped to see that I finally had Chris’ undivided attention. “The only voice they will listen to is their own voice.”

“What do you mean? How can I get them to say negative things about themselves?”

“It’s a very simple question. To get a better result, what could you do differently? Then wait. The next words out of their mouth will state the negative feedback they need to hear from the only person they will listen to.” -TF

“Do people learn more from success or from a mistake?” I asked.

Rory looked up. “I suppose they learn more from mistakes.”

“I wonder why that is?”

“I don’t know. I never thought about it.”

“The reason people learn more from mistakes is because they sit and try to figure out what went wrong. When people are successful, they are too busy celebrating to stop and figure out what went right.

“Next time a project goes well, stop and ask yourself, what were the factors that caused things to turn out right. Learning from success can be very powerful and it feels a lot better than learning from mistakes.” -TF

Barry looked stunned when I got to his office. He had been training his new supervisor for the past three months. On his desk was a handwritten note, “I really appreciate all the time you spent with me over the past couple of months. Unfortunately, I just found another job.” Barry grabbed the paper. I didn’t need to read the rest.

“The worst part,” said Barry, “is that I have to start training all over. Lucky I have another person for the job, but it will take three months to get her up to speed.”

“The best part,” I interrupted, “is that you just finished training someone. The training is fresh in your mind. You remember what worked and what didn’t. You remember what took a long time and what was easy. Now, is the time to write all that down, starting with step one. Put it in a three ring binder and what will you have?”

After a brief pause, Barry grinned. “I will have a training manual.”

“Even more important, you will have the opportunity to tweak your training manual as you train this new person. In another year, you may find that you have to promote this young supervisor and we will be having this same conversation. But then, you won’t feel so bad because you will know where to start.” -TF

“Tell me about that picture of the next step for you.” I was talking to Jeanine.

“I can’t. I can’t do it until I have the authority to do it.” She was struggling with her position in the company. She was in position to help solve some communication issues between several teams inside the company. “I just don’t have their respect. If I had the title, it would just be easier.”

“Jeanine, I can’t give you the title. You have to earn the title. I cannot make people have respect for you, it has to be earned.”

“But, if I don’t have the authority, how can I get their respect?”

I paused. “Jeanine, it is really very simple. All you have to do is bring value to the thinking and the work of those around you. Stimulate their thinking, help them improve to the next level, show them how they can solve their own problems.

“People will always seek out others in the organization that bring value to their thinking and their work. I can assign a direct report to a manager, but if that manager is not bringing value to the party, the direct report will always seek out the person that is.

“If you want respect, forget the title. Bring value to the thinking and work of those around you. You will earn it.” -TF