Double Duty

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As Wes studied the chart scrawled across the white board, I could see a question mark on his forehead. “It’s all well and good, to say that this layer in the company does the work, and this layer, supervisors, makes sure the work gets done, and the next layer, managers, create the systems in the company.” Wes stopped.

“But sometimes, I feel like I have to play a little bit of all of these roles. In some departments, we just can’t afford to hire separate people to fill those roles. Sometimes, we have to play double duty.”

“That’s not unusual,” I replied. “I find this chart is especially helpful for lean companies, like yours, where you can’t afford to field every position with a different player. But the roles still have to be played, even if some are played by the same person.

“Just remember, that every minute a manager plays the role of a supervisor is a minute that your systems are neglected. Young companies don’t have a choice.” -TF

Find Both a Coach and a Mentor

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From the Ask Tom mailbag:

Question:

I have completed my MBA and I am now working in an office with a limited territory for our company here in India. I want to know what other things I need to do, like a course, to create better prospects for me to become a manager?

Response:

More learning, taking a course is always a plus, but not sufficient.

You need two things. First, you need to speak with your manager and ask for clear feedback on how you can improve in your current position. Whatever you are currently doing, be the best. Your manager is the best coach to give you that feedback.

Second, you need to find a mentor. Your mentor may or may not work inside your company, but should be in a position to speak with you long term about your career. This is usually not your direct manager, but one more level up. Your conversations should not be centered around your day-to-day accountabilities, but on longer one and two year goals.

Be the best where you are today and keep looking forward one to two years in the future. Congratulations on your MBA. You are now at the start of the game, a wonderful game. -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

Not Your Job

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“What kind of questions?” asked Ted.

“Look, in your position, as Manager, you often don’t have the technical details necessary to make a decision. As a Manager, that’s not your job. Your job is to bring value to the thinking and work of your team.” I waited for Ted to catch up.

“By asking questions?”

“Most Managers think their team will see them weak if they have difficulty making a decision, even if the Manager doesn’t have the technical details. So, sometimes Managers make a decision because they think it’s their job.

“If you have two engineers, each with a different method of solving a problem, you may not know which method is technically the best way.”

“So, how do you make the decision?”

“You don’t bring value by making a decision and telling them what to do. You bring value by asking questions.

  • What were the top three criteria on which you based your recommendation?
  • What impact will your recommendation hav on the time frame of the project?
  • What two things could go wrong with your recommendation?

“Your job, as Manager, is not telling people what to do. Your job is to bring value to their thinking and their work.” -TF

Bringing Value

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Greetings from St. Louis, MO.
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“I’m not sure I know what you mean, bring value to a person’s thinking and their work. I know what it means, I guess, I am not sure how a Manager does that,” asked Ted.

“Do you bring value by telling a person what to do?” I replied.

“Well, I could make suggestions,” Ted answered. “But you are right. Technically, these guys run circles around me. I don’t know the technology and I don’t have their experience.”

“So, even if you did make suggestions, there is a high likelihood that you would be suggesting the wrong thing?”

Ted nodded his head.

“So, if these guys can technically run circles around you and have much more experience, then how can you, as their Manager, bring value to their thinking and their work?”

Ted was stumped.

“As their Manager, Ted, you don’t bring value by telling. You bring value by asking questions.” -TF

Manager’s Commitment

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Greetings from St. Louis, MO.

I would like to welcome our new subscribers from Toronto. I was there last week in a series of workshops on Time Span and the research of Elliott Jaques.
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“Yes, but shouldn’t these people be reporting to me?” asked Ted.

“That depends. Functionally, their roles produce results you are interested in, but are you prepared to be their Manager?” I replied.

“I think so. I think they can report to me. I think I can hold them accountable for producing those results. I think I can check up on them to make sure they are working,” Ted proposed.

“That’s only the surface part of being a Manager.” I stopped to draw a picture. “Here you are, and these people, you believe, should report to you. But are you prepared to be their Manager?

“Your most important role, in the Manager relationship with these guys, is for you to bring value to their thinking and their work.” Ted stared at the simple picture of circles and lines.

“Are you bringing value to their thinking and their work by telling them that their reports are due on Friday and then reminding them Monday morning that their reports are late?”

Ted was still staring, but putting the pieces together. “Well, no, not when you put it that way.”

“Then, how, as their Manager, do you bring that value? And are you committed to bring that value? Are you willing to commit the time to bring that value?

“The answers to these questions will determine whether these people should report to you.” -TF

Up Front

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“As a participant in any meeting, Sheila, have you ever walked out at the end saying, Darn, I wish we had done this at the meeting.”

“Well, yeah. Almost every meeting I go to, is like that. Sometimes, it wouldn’t take much to make a meeting more meaningful,” she replied. “Almost every time, it misses the mark.”

“So, you think a meeting would have been better if it had just included some unspoken element?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“Then, up front at the beginning of the meeting, does it make sense to get those unspoken elements out on the table?”

Sheila tilted her head. “How would you do that?”

“If you are the leader of the meeting, early on, after establishing the purpose for the meeting, simply ask, What is your condition of satisfaction for today’s meeting. What has to happen, by the end of the day, for you to say, this meeting was worthwhile, to say, you are glad you came, you are glad you contributed?

“As the leader of the meeting,” I continued. “You might as well know that up front.” -TF

Before the Meeting

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“They could have done two things up front that would have made the meeting worth attending,” Sheila started. “First they could have published the goals for the meeting. It’s like it’s a big secret. Why not just tell us what they are trying to accomplish with the meeting?”

“And what else?” I asked.

“You know, I said they could have put it all in an email. They could have published all the INFORMATION stuff up front so we could look at it before the meeting.”

“You really read that stuff?”

Sheila smiled. “No, well, yes, I would have at least skimmed it beforehand to get a basic idea of the details.”

“So, what else? What else could have guaranteed the meeting would get you engaged?” -TF

Waste of Meeting

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“It was a waste of time,” Sheila complained. “Some of us had to travel to get here, we lost two days of productivity back at the office. All for this BIG meeting. They’re rolling out this new program, but for my time, they could have told us all about it in an email.”

“What did you learn?” I asked.

“Well, I learned how not to run a meeting,” she replied.

“So, when you run your own meetings, with your department, you now know what NOT to do?”

“Well, yeah, but I didn’t need two lost days to learn a lesson like that.”

“Is it possible, that after all the expenses, all the planning and all the effort that went into the meeting, that your company failed to accomplish what it set out to accomplish?”

Sheila started to chuckle. “You’re right, they probably didn’t intend to have a bad meeting. I am sure they had some goals for the two days, they just didn’t share that with us.”

“Tell me, Sheila. What could they have done differently, to have the impact they were looking for?” -TF

My Fault

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From the Ask Tom mailbag:

Question:

My last meeting was a one day-seminar working a live case with creative breakout sessions. A warm-up on the beach, 3 coffee breaks and a large lunch break. Instead of 15 minute breaks, the team takes 30 minutes. Instead of 30 minutes for lunch, the team takes 45 minutes. So they found creative techniques to mess with the timetable, and the content of their solutions was not that great.

With this particular group, this happens a lot. I asked for their expectations up front, but that doesn’t work. Normally when I make agreements for a session like this, with other groups, we have no problems.

Response:

So, what is different about this team? The answer to your predicament is not some technique on how to handle a group in a meeting. The answer is in what’s different about this group.

I work with groups all over North America. While I have very consistent program material, I have learned that every group I work with is different. And my first job, as a facilitator, or your job, as a manager, is to discover that difference.

If I fail to discover that difference, the level of engagement suffers. When the group is not engaged, they will do something else to fill the time. It appears as misbehavior, taking long breaks, falling asleep or playing with Blackberries under the tablecloth.

Is it the group’s fault? Or is it my fault?

It’s my fault. I failed to engage. I was too impatient, I didn’t listen, I rushed into the content without drawing in the group.

So, over the next few days, we will explore how to do that. -TF