“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.”
“So, the Supervisor’s solution to fuel pricing cost more money in overtime and extra travel distance to the cheapest pump?” I nodded. “What would have been a Manager’s solution? You’re a Manager, what would you have done?”
“I actually did step in. It took us three months to figure out the problem was getting worse. The solution wasn’t in finding the lowest pump price for the day. We had to look at our system and think in a longer time frame. The Time Span for this task wasn’t a day, or even a week, it was 12 months.”
“What was the long term solution?”
“I got a fuel price, not the cheapest one, but one I could lock in on a 3 month contract for a tanker to be parked in our truck yard. I got three options going forward that capped a price escalation. That sets us for the year.
“We have a night security employee in the yard who now has something to do at night. He drives the tanker around and fills the trucks with fuel. The drivers come in at their regular time and the truck is all ready to go.
“The Supervisor’s solution about find the cheapest fuel price wasn’t the answer. It was looking at our system of fueling trucks.”
“What could you have done to test him before the promotion?” I asked.
“Before the promotion? But it wasn’t his job before the promotion.” Gerald protested.
“That’s the point of testing. Find a task with a longer Time Span and test him. Test him before the promotion.”
Gerald was thinking. “Okay, here’s a task we gave him after the promotion. Fuel prices are up. We need some solution to get fuel prices down. We need someone to look at the way we purchase fuel and come up with a better system.”
I stopped him. “What is the Time Span associated with this task?”
“We are not looking for a quick fix, in fact, his quick fix cost us more money. He looked at the internet every night for the lowest fuel prices, had his guys show up fifteen minutes early everyday so they could drive there. Often, it was a little out of the way. But the price on the pump was cheaper.
“That’s what I mean. He is a great scrambler,” Gerald continued. “I know he searched every night and indeed came up with the lowest price.”
“What was the problem?”
“It was a Supervisor’s solution. Actually cost us more money. Every day kicked in 15 minutes of overtime per driver and the extra distance to the pump burned more fuel than the savings.”
“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
“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
“When did it start?” I asked. Gerald stopped to think. A long time employee, recently promoted to Manager, had gone brain-dead.
“The timing is a little tough. When we promoted him to Manager, we knew there would be a learning curve, so we gave him a little space and the benefit of the doubt. But after four months, my patience is wearing thin.”
“Why have you let it go so long?” I asked.
“Well, we figured it would take a quarter to get up to speed, so we set some benchmarks that he needed to hit by the end of six months. I don’t know if we can wait until then.”
“So, this is management by results?” I pondered.
“Yeah, that’s the way we normally do things. But he’s not even close, and when we do try to pin him down, there is always some excuse about something not being in his control, and that we should wait for the six months we agreed to measure the benchmark.”
“How are you liking your approach?” -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
Gerald was getting impatient, up and down from his chair, pacing the floor. “But that’s the way we work. Management by Objectives.”
“I can see that,” I responded, nodding. “You gave him six months to hit his objectives, but you can already see that his behavior, as a Manager, is not effective?”
“Well, yes. And even trying to pin him down on his objectives. He’s just slippery. We are trying to measure the benchmarks and we can’t get the information. He has a production report that is due every Friday, but I never get it on time. And then, when I do get it, there is something screwy with the numbers, like a formula is wrong, or the columns don’t foot with each other. So I ask him to fix it and it’s another week before I see him again. Meanwhile, another Friday report is due and late again.”
“So, he can’t succeed based on his effectiveness, but he can succeed based on his ability to manage the data that you don’t receive about his performance?” –TF
From the Ask Tom mailbag:
Question:
Need advice on recovering from a bad decision I made that has caused my boss and several other to be disappointed in me. I apologized to my boss for my actions and he says I didn’t do anything wrong, but the look on his face and others indicates that that is not his true feelings. I didn’t support my boss and several other is a plan that they worked on for months, I didn’t do it intentionally, just got caught up in the momentum of a new idea. I made a quick decision that was wrong. Really don’t know how to recover and feel better. These people are important to me and I’m personally and professionally upset with myself.
Response:
I am going to agree with your boss and take it on face value that you did NOT do anything wrong. So, quit beating yourself up.
Disagreements and enthusiastic other positions are healthy on any management team. If there are no disagreements, then you don’t need those people on the management team. By the way, this would not be the first time a CEO and a management team worked for six months on the wrong thing.
On the other hand, I don’t need unsubstantiated opinion without evidence to support it. I also need an attitude of cooperation and support in the midst of the disagreement. It sounds like this.
“Thank you for inviting me to this meeting. I know this project is very important to the company.
“This may be difficult to hear, because I know you have all worked very hard on this project, and I am in possession of some information and supporting data that may put this project in jeopardy. We may be working on the wrong thing.
“The reason I am presenting this information today is so that, at the end of the meeting, we can agree on a plan of action. We still may not agree with the facts or the data, but we need to agree on a plan of action that we can all support.
“If you had information that was adverse to one of my projects, I would expect you to challenge me in the same way.
“I have the data organized into a handout and I can present these ideas in approximately five minutes. Do I have the team’s permission to proceed?”
“What has to happen in the next two hours that will indicate time well spent,” Sam asked. Each person looked around at each of the other members of this management team, then looked down and began to write.
It was not Sam’s intention to figure out the solution to this problem. It was Sam’s intention to have the group figure out the solution to this problem.
The responses from the team were positive.
Most importantly, this was no longer Sam’s problem. This problem now belonged to the group. -TF