The Illusion of Managerial Control

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As managers, we do all kinds of things in an attempt to maintain control. In our roles, we are given goals to implement with our teams. Our teams, at some point, let us down, there is a bit of mistrust coupled with the adage learned from our mothers that if you want a job done right, you have to do it yourself.

Unfortunately for our (control-freak) minds, there is too much work to do ourselves, so we find it necessary to assign tasks to our team. Yet, we tip-toe out and peek over shoulders, not micro-managing, but enough oversight to identify a mistake in the method. We take corrective action, perhaps a performance-improvement-plan, increase the frequency of our coaching and dial up the volume.

Still, it makes little difference. In spite of the shouting, the gathering of metrics, the deadline is missed and the defect rate is above threshold. We sit in our office, after hours, with our head in our hands and wonder we are the only ones who seem concerned about this lack of accountability. We have lost control.

This scenario of control is an illusion. It does not exist except in the mind of the manager. The manager can only control what one person can control and there is too much work to go around for one person.

The manager who carries all the keys to all the doors and all the closets (makes all the decisions and solves all the problems) will never be in control. Only when appropriate decision making and appropriate problem solving is pushed to the team does the manager resume control. It is counter-intuitive. The only way to really be in control is to let go.
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Working Leadership comes to Austin TX. For more information, follow this link.
Here are the dates –

  • Session One – Aug 25, 2017
  • Session Two – Sep 1, 2017
  • Session Three – Sep 8, 2017
  • Session Four – Sep 18, 2017
  • Session Five – Sep 22, 2017
  • Session Six – Sep 28, 2017

For registration information, ask Tom.

Working Leadership Comes to Austin TX

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Since 1995, our Working Leadership program has been training managers. More than 1200 have graduated from this program in managerial leadership. This six week behavior-based program covers the essential skills that managers are never taught.

  • Role of the manager
  • Communication one-to-one
  • Time management
  • Leadership styles (using the DISC program)
  • Team problem solving
  • Positive Reinforcement
  • Planning
  • Delegation
  • Decision Making
  • Accountability
  • Effective meetings
  • Coaching

If you would like more detail about the curriculum in each of these subject areas, just ask here. I will send you a more colorful sheet.

Here are the dates –
Session One – Aug 25, 2017
Session Two – Sep 1, 2017
Session Three – Sep 8, 2017
Session Four – Sep 18, 2017
Session Five – Sep 22, 2017
Session Six – Sep 28, 2017

Each session is 3-1/2 hours and includes field work assignments between sessions. This program is intended for Hi-S-II supervisors and S-III managers. The class will be held in Austin, TX.

Your coach for this program will be William Foster. William has been in the classroom for 27 years, is a Board Member of the Caldwell Independent School District, and received his certification to teach this program in 2016.

Space is limited to 15 students. If you have an emerging manager in your organization that would benefit from this program, you can pre-register here. Program tuition is $1600. Vistage members receive a $100 credit per participant (includes all materials and textbooks.) VISA-MasterCard accepted.

If you have questions, would like more information or if you would like to pre-register, please drop me an email or follow this link.

Curriculum Details –

—Session One—
Orientation. During the initial Session, participants will create both a company and a personal framework, setting expectations and direction for this program. Participants, through directed discussion, create the connection between the program course material and their day-to-day management challenges.

Role of the Manager. Introduces the distinction between supervisor and managerial roles. Clarifies the specific goals necessary for effectiveness. This module creates the foundation on which the rest of the course material builds. Incorporates source material from Requisite Organization – Elliott Jaques.

Time Management. Introduces the textbook Getting Things Done by David Allen. (Text included as part of the program).

—Session Two—
Leadership Styles. Participants will complete a DISC survey (DISC is an online instrument published by TTI) and report on their own identified strengths and working style.

Communication. The largest challenge, for most managers, centers on issues of communication. This Session will introduce participants to a new level of conversational “reality.” Introduces the text, Fierce Conversations, by Susan Scott, as reference material. (Text included as part of this program.)

—Session Three—
Positive Reinforcement. This segment reviews the management research of Elliott Jaques and Abraham Maslow regarding “why people work.” Explores the role of positive reinforcement outlined in by Aubrey Daniels – Getting the Best Out of People.

Team Problem Solving. Expands Fierce Conversations to the group setting. Designed to move a group into “real work,” using a team problem solving model. Demonstrates how to build a team through problem solving.

—Session Four—
Planning. This segment introduces a results-oriented planning model, based on David Allen’s Getting Things Done, which participants can quickly use in any situation where planning would be of benefit.

Delegation. Participants are introduced to a specific model of effectivedelegation. Most managers hold certain mental blocks to delegation that prevents them from using this powerful developmental tool. This delegation model challenges these mental blocks so the entire team, manager included, can benefit from delegation.

—Session Five—
Decision Making. This segment introduces three decision models that participants can use to make decisions in specific circumstances. All models can be used in a team setting or for an individual decision.

Accountability Conversation. Introduces a results-oriented method to hold individuals and teams accountable for desired results. This combines concepts of Time Span, QQT Goals and Management Relationships.

—Session Six—
Effective Meetings. Moves from theory to the practical application of team dynamics. How to run a more effective meeting.

Coaching. This segment takes the communication models we have previously used and integrates them into a conversation specifically designed for coaching subordinates.

If you would like to find out more about this program, please drop me a line.
-Tom Foster

Can I Do This By Myself?

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From the Ask Tom mailbag –

Question:
I attended your session last week on levels of work. I can see that my organization has a lot of work to do, but I am just a manager. I don’t have the authority to do some of the things you suggest. How can I, as a manager, implement some of these ideas with my own team. Where do I start?

Response:
Remember this phrase, “It’s all about the work.”

Work is solving problems and making decisions. That is where to start. As a manager, think about your team and its function inside your company. Is it marketing, sales, contracting, project management, operations, quality control, research and development, accounting, human resources, legal? What is the function of your team?

In that function, what are the problems that have to be solved? What are the decisions that have to be made? You don’t have to answer these questions by yourself, ask your team.

As you discuss this with your team, three distinct levels of work will likely emerge.

  • There is some direct activity, or production work that must be done.
  • There is some organizing work that schedules the production work, its people, materials and necessary equipment to make sure that the production gets done, on time.
  • There is system work that decides the most efficient sequence, time duration, quality standard and assesses the output to make improvements for a more consistent and predictable product or service.

You will notice that each level of work has its own problems to solve and decisions to make. You will also notice the time span of each level of work is different.

  • The direct activity, or production work may be observable in days or weeks.
  • The organizing work will anticipate the production schedules in weeks or months.
  • The system work will ensure that the product or service is consistent over a longer period of months and years.

You will notice, that to be effective, each level of work may carry its own skill set, engage in distinctly different activities and measure its outcomes in different ways.

Remember this phrase, “It’s all about the work.” As a manager, become an expert in the work. -Tom

New Team, New Manager

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It is always tough to become a new manager to an existing peer group or a new team. A new manager always means change. And most people don’t like change, at least the unknown parts of change.

Respect comes, not from the authority of the position, or the experience of the manager. Respect comes from bringing value to the problem solving and decision making of the individuals on the team.

In fact, team members will always seek out the person in the company that brings value to their thinking and their work. If it happens to be their manager, that’s great. All too often, it’s not.

We all work for two bosses. We work for the boss who is assigned to us, and we work for the boss we seek out. The boss we seek out is the one who brings value to our thinking, our work and our lives.

So, if you are the new manager, which boss are you?

Gain More Control

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From the Ask Tom mailbag –

Question:
You say, your challenge, as a manager, is to work less and gain more control. Easy to say. Hard to do.

Response:
Management is a mindset. Levels of work help us understand that management is not about working more, or working harder, it is about working differently. Delegation is all about working differently.

In every role, there is a level of problem solving and a level of decision making. When Marshall Goldsmith says “What got you here, won’t get you there,” he is talking about a different level of work.

When Albert Einstein says “No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it,” he is talking about a different level of work.

Elliott Jaques‘ research on levels of work makes this management advice concrete. Intuitively, we understand levels of work, but only when Jaques defined levels of work related to time span, did we get some useful direct insight.

The time span of the goal defines the level of work. In a technician’s world, goals range from a day to three months. In your role as a supervisor, or first line manager, your longest time span objectives range from 3-12 months. Any task that is shorter is a candidate to be delegated.

In your role as a manager, your longest time span objectives range from 12-24 months. Any task that is shorter is a candidate to be delegated.

What is left? It is those longer time span tasks that make up your role as a manager. It is only when you have effectively delegated shorter time span task assignments that you will get more throughput and more control over the quality of the output. -Tom

Level of Work – Time Span Objectives
S-I – 1 day to 3 months
S-II – 3 months to 12 months
S-III – 12-24 months
S-IV – 2-5 years

Mindset of the Magic Pill

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Several years ago, I told the story of the Magic Pill. The Magic Pill is prescribed to every manager and prevents them from working more than 40 hours in a week.

I can hear the protests already. No way you can get all your work done in 40 hours a week.

The Magic Pill is a mind-set. Forty hours a week is a mind-set. Of course, managers work more than 40 hours a week, but the point is the mind-set. If you worked 80 hours in a week, would you be able to get all of your work done? The answer is no. The work of a manager is never done.

The point of the Magic Pill is two-fold. First, when you get tired, exhausted, burned out, your effectiveness drops off dramatically, down to zero. But the most important part of the Magic Pill is to work differently. The role of a manager is not the same as the work of a team member.

Let me tell you about the Super-Magic pill. It only allows for 10 hours of work in a week. If you took the Super-Magic pill and only worked 10 hours a week, what would you have to change to work effectively?

No, I am not kidding. I am as serious as a heart attack (the one you will have working 60-70 hours a week). -Tom

Time Span of Express

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Analogies can be useful teachers. Seth Godin published this about Express and Local trains, which creates a perfect analogy to understand time span.

Express trains run less often, make fewer stops, and if they’re going where you’re going, get you there faster.
The local train is, of course, the opposite.
Some people hop on the first train that comes. A local in the hand is worth the extra time, they say, because you’re never quite sure when the express is going to get there.
On the other hand, there’s a cost to investing in the thing that pays off in the long run.
Now that you see that, you’re probably going to notice it in 100 areas of your life.

One of those hundred areas is time span.

Local trains (short time span) require very little thought, not much of a plan. The train (bus) picks a route and stops every place (enough) people want to stop. It uses the same track day after day.

Express trains (longer time span) requires more thought and much more planning.

  • Which routes would benefit from express?
  • What is the threshold criteria for an express?
  • Which stops to skip? Which are served by a local?
  • Which tracks to use? Which tracks to skip?
  • How to evaluate the effectiveness of an express?
  • What if something changes and the express is no longer effective? How do we know?

Think about your projects, your customer service, your web portals, product delivery, warranty programs, quality programs, research and development. What is your express train? What is your local?

Work Less and Gain More Control

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From the Ask Tom mailbag –

Question:
Sometimes, at work after hours, it is quiet and I ask myself, why am I here? I should be home with my family. But, there is still so much to be done. And if I don’t take care of some loose ends, something critical will blow up tomorrow. I feel guilty, responsible. But, the harder I work, the more things seem out of control.

Response:
You are not the only manager thinking that thought. This is a self-inflicted wound.

So, you have to think if something doesn’t change, about the way you manage your team, what will happen? What will happen in another week? What will happen in another month? What will happen in another year?

You likely feel tired every morning. You stopped working out because I don’t have time. You feel like a cold is coming on. And you still feel out of control.

This is counter-intuitive. You feel like you need to work more. My suggestion will be to work less.

  • Determine the work that is necessary to be done.
  • In the work that is important, determine the level of work that is necessary for you to work on and the level of work that is necessary for your team to work on.
  • Stop doing the work your team should be doing. Assign the work and spend your time coaching instead of doing.

You are a manager, not a technician. The more you work, the less control you have. Ask yourself this question – If I were to work less, how could I have more control?

Must Become a Habit

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From the Ask Tom mailbag –

Question:
I feel like I am in big trouble. I was just promoted to manager. So, I understand I am the one who is supposed to make all the decisions, and that I am accountable for all the results.

But, it seems like I have to make up all the plays, call the plays, take the snap, throw the football, catch the football, and run for the touchdown. I am a bit overwhelmed.

Response:
Did you forget to block? My guess is you worked over the weekend and logged about 60 hours last week. Your manager probably told you had to delegate, but that has not been in your nature, you don’t have a habit of delegating.

Delegation is more than a series of steps –

  • Selecting the task to delegate.
  • Selecting the person to delegate to.
  • Holding a delegation meeting.
  • Describing the purpose and vision of the completed task.
  • Describing the specific performance standard, goal or objective.
  • Describing the guidelines, constraints, budget, access to resources.
  • Creating the action plan.
  • Setting the interim followup.
  • Evaluating the execution.

Delegation is a mindset. Your first question is not how something should be done, but who? Yes, you have the accountability for the outcome, but you have to accomplish it in a whole new way. And, delegation must become a habit. Over and over. Again. -Tom

How to Cripple a Team

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From the Ask Tom mailbag-

Question:
Faced with a problem to solve, my team never really comes up with anything. Sometimes it seems they just want me to tell them what to do so they don’t have to think. We are really busy, so most times, I give in, tell them the answer and get them back to work. But, at the end of the day, I am exhausted.

Response:
Of course they want you to tell them what to do. If you tell them what to do, then they are not responsible for the solution. Every time you solve a problem that the team should solve, you cripple the team from solving the next problem.

It’s a tough assignment for you to turn down. You get all the glory, you get to strut, you get to be the head Fred, you get to be the go-to guy when there is a problem to solve. It feels good AND it destroys your team.

Most of all, your team likes it that way. They are relieved of the difficult decisions.

This is not just a method called team problem solving, this is a mind-set on the part of the manager. If you want to build a team, give them a problem to solve. As the manager, you may have to help define the problem, facilitate alternate solutions and ask questions related to the best solution, but let the silence do the heavy lifting.

I can always tell a team is stuck when they fail to solve the same problem they had a year ago. I can always tell a team is growing when they trade in the problems from a year ago (now solved) for a new set of problems for tomorrow. -Tom