Miguel was stunned. At some point, he thought I was a nice guy, but now he was not so sure. Our production volume was coming back, and because of layoffs in his department, he was already working twelve hour days running a 10 hour staggered shift. We were about to expand to an 18 hour swing shift, adding more production people and expecting Miguel to run the whole thing. Welcome to management.

"But I am already working as hard as I can," Miguel protested. "How can you possibly expect more?"

"I expect more, because you are capable of more," I replied. Miguel's face turned blank. He was tired of fighting. He was tired of fighting the twelve hour days, he was tired of fighting me, but mostly he was tired of fighting his own thinking.

"I can't work this way any longer," he resigned. "Something has to give. I am already in trouble with my wife. I hardly get to play with my kids. My golf clubs have rust on them."

"And I want you to manage a longer work process with about double the headcount you have now. What are you going to change?"

Great comments coming in, as we continue our discussion. This is from Jim D'Wolf.

"To further muddy the waters, I have found that people who study the numbers and people who manage the people will not always share a common language or common goals.Both perspectives are equally important in managing an operation, but getting them on the same page is a challenge. It helps to define effecient as the use of resources in being effective and to define effective as the degree to which you meet or exceed the customer's needs or requirements (George Eckes - Six Sigma)."

Jim's comment stirs the continuing debate over the difference between managerial practices and leadership practices. In some sense, it is very simple. People do NOT want to be managed. People want direction and strategy. People want to be led. By the same token, you cannot lead a process. A process has to be managed. Manage processes, lead people.

In the end, it takes both, managerial leadership practices to make this engine run.

From the Ask Tom mailbag:

Question:
Outstanding blog! I have been associated with Results Based Performance and was not at all impressed. How would one know their true capacity? Additionally, how would you evaluate a manager’s effectiveness or performance?

Response:
If a team member was a goose and the intended result was a golden egg, we often focus on the number of golden eggs and ignore the goose.

In my manager workshops, I ask, "Who can walk onto the plant floor, or into the field and spot positive behavior?" Always a show of hands. "And how many can spot negative behavior?" Again, a show of hands. "And long does it take to tell the difference." Managers are observers of behavior. Behavior that moves toward the goal and behavior that moves away from the goal.

So, how do we take that one or two layers up the food chain? How do we evaluate effectiveness on the part of the manager? What are positive managerial behaviors? What are negative managerial behaviors? How do we tell the difference?

Elliott Jaques described four managerial authorities that help us answer that question.

1. Team Member Selection
2. Team Member De-Selection
3. Task Assignments
4. Evaluation of Effectiveness

Our next Working Leadership Online focuses on Team Member Selection, the first of those four managerial authorities. We have ten scholarships available. If you would like to participate, please reply to Ask Tom.

• Oct 5 - Managerial Authorities - Time Span and Hiring Talent
• Oct 26 - Time Span and the Personal Effectiveness Appraisal
• Nov 23 - Break (Thanksgiving - USA)
• Nov 30 - Bringing Out the Best in People
• Dec 21 - Jan 10, 2010 - Winter Break

"I'm working as hard as I can," Jerrold defended.

"I know you are working hard," I matched. "Are you focused on the right things?"

Jerrold was tensing up. "Look, production has to get done and we seem to be short-handed, maybe we cut back a little too much. The only way I know how, is to pitch in and help out."

"Every minute you spend in production is a minute you are not spending scheduling and adjusting," I replied. "I am not saying you shouldn't help out on the line, but that is not the work of supervision. You are burned out, not because you are working too hard. You are burned out because you are working hard and not making any progress."

Jerrold was quiet. His breathing slowed. "I know what I need to do. I just need to do it."

It seems noble to roll up your sleeves and pitch in to help out. It feels good. But if you continue to focus on production work at the expense of supervision work, you will fail. You will feel beat up and ineffective. As you are ineffective, you will get pummeled by customer demand, your boss and ultimately, your team will turn on you.

In the short term, you may get today's quota out the door. In the long term, you begin the death spiral.

I want to step outside the stories for a couple of days and talk about a few things we are doing here. Management Skills Blog is in its fifth year with more than 1000 posts talking about issues faced by managers.

Over the years we have been working on an interactive platform that kicks off today. Those of you from my workshops know about the research of Elliott Jaques. His concepts of Requisite Organization will be the cornerstone of this new platform. Today, a group jumps in with both feet.

We start with Goals. Everything we do, as a person, is goal directed behavior. Our daily lives are filled with "what by whens." Sometimes we are aware of our goals, sometimes our goals are so routine that we don't even notice. Yet our days are full of goals.

Some goals are noble, some not so noble. Some goals are driven by needs, some driven by desire, some driven by avoidance.

And there are times, plenty of times, when we are most definitely aware of our goals. We think about them, share them with others, change them, write them down and achieve them. Everything we do starts with a goal.
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Working Leadership Online kicks off today. Register Now.
Feb 2 – Goal Setting and Time Span (2 weeks)
Feb 16 – Delegation (2 weeks)
Mar 2 – Planning (2 weeks)
Mar 16 – Decision Making (2 weeks)
Mar 30 – Control Systems and Feedback Loops (2 weeks)
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