Wes was mulling over his role as a manager. “But, my days always seem to be filled with problems, some internal, some external, you know, with customers. In fact, we pride ourselves on prompt customer response. We are in a high demand, time is of the essence business. Yet, you say that a manager’s most important tasks have time spans of months. There are times when I have to respond, as a manager, within minutes. And we’re talking critical customer stuff.”

“It appears that way,” I replied. “But if you spend all your time responding to customer emergencies within minutes, then your life, your organization will be in constant and total chaos.”

Wes nodded. “Sometimes, no, most times, it seems like that.”

“How do you take the chaos out, and still respond to emergencies within minutes? Look at an organization whose life actually is emergencies, EMS. I will guarantee that when first responders show up on a medical scene, their actions are carefully designed into consistent systems that have been repetitively trained. Those systems are not ad hoc, but were created over long periods of time (time span) and are constantly reviewed and improved.

“What happens may appear rapid and spontaneous, but it is a system. When you think of the most important role of a manager, think system.” -TF

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“I guess I kind of thought of them as the same job,” Wes pondered aloud.

“Even though you are one person filling both roles as supervisor and manager, their functions are quite distinct,” I replied. “At the end of the day, what is the supervisor supposed to have accomplished?”

“Well, every day has a quota. There is a certain amount of work that is supposed to get done.”

“And at the end of the day, what is the manager supposed to have accomplished?”

Wes was stuck. It was several seconds before he took a stab. “I don’t know, I guess he is just supposed to manage.”

“It’s a tough question. The reason it’s a tough question is, the most important work of a manager can’t be finished in a day. Many tasks take a month or six months with the most important tasks requiring a year or more to complete.” -TF

Greetings from Toronto.

From the Ask Tom mailbag:

Question:

What happens when you realize you were given a promotion and not able to live up to the capabilities? Do you admit it to your superiors? Do you keep it to yourself and risk failure?

Response:

There are many ways to survive in a position that’s over your head, but in the end, it’s only survival. Not a way to live.

I often ask managers, “How do you know, what behavior do you observe when a person is in over their head? Where the Time Span for the position is longer than the Time Span of the person?”

The descriptions come back.

• They feel overwhelmed.
• They cover things up.
• They cut off communication.
• Their projects are always late.
• I can’t ever find them.
• They always blame someone else.
• They have all the excuses.
• They never accept responsibility.

So, the short answer is yes. When you realize you are in over your head, go back to your boss. Explain the difficulties you are having. Ask for help. If it is a matter of capability (Time Span), no amount of training, no amount of hand holding will help. It is possible that you may grow into the position, but it’s more likely a matter of years, not weeks that allows for the required maturity (increase in Time Span).

This doesn’t make you a bad person, it just means you were placed in a position where you cannot be effective. Yet! -TF

“The point, Gerald, is testing. We promote people on a wing and a prayer without any evidence of their capability,” I said.

Gerald was quiet, this was a thoughtful conversation for him. “So, at each and every promotion, we should be testing people for higher levels of capability? And that testing should take place before the promotion, not after it?” he asked without expecting an answer. “It’s so basic, so fundamental, I couldn’t see it.”

“What is different about being a Manager?” I asked.

Gerald was quiet. His new Manager had been a great Supervisor, but was having difficulty.

“You have a great employee, team player, always shows up, works well under pressure, your go-to guy in a pinch. What is so different about being a manager?”

Gerald began slowly, “The things he is failing on, are things that go more slowly. He works well in a bit of chaos, but as a Manager, I would expect him to prevent some of that chaos. It’s almost as if he allows the chaos to emerge, so he can show off his stuff. I want him to work on a system, so things are anticipated, projects get routed automatically, conflicts are resolved on paper before they happen.”

“And did he demonstrate any of that behavior before you promoted him?” I asked.

“Well, no, but we thought he would be able to figure that out.”

“Did you ever assign him tasks, management tasks, to test him on his capability to handle those assignments?”

Gerald narrowed his eyes, before his short answer, “No.”

“So, you promoted him to a Manager level, without evidence of Management capability, based on his success at a Supervisor level?” -TF

“I am not sure where the problem is,” Gerald said. “He has been with the company for eight years, so he knows the ropes, how things are done, what the culture is. But ever since we promoted him four months ago, he has been different.”

“In what way,” I replied.

“Well, he seems dedicated enough, shows up early, stays late, though, during the day, I can’t seem to find him.”

“What about his performance. How effective do you think he is, based on what you expect from his position?”

“That’s the thing,” Gerald sighed. “I don’t think he is effective, but you can’t ever pin him down to find out what the problem is. His department never delivers on time, and when they finally do, it’s incomplete. They always have to scramble to finish the job.”

“What problems does that create?”

“Morale, for one. His team’s enthusiasm is pretty low. They complain about having to do the same job twice, or get halfway through something and have to stop, tear it down and start over on another ‘more important’ project.”

“And?”

“And, it’s having an impact on customers. Some of the phone calls are getting all the way up to me. When they get to me, something is wrong.”

“So, what do you think is happening?” -TF