I Finally Realized That I Couldn’t Call the Shots

There was a time in my early work career when I would challenge and protest every decision that I didn’t support, made by my management.  And at that time of course, size didn’t matter.  Big issues, little issues–all the same.  I was never one to pick my battles in the old days.

What did all that get me later in my career?  No matter where I worked I would discover that the same issues would resurface and my reaction would be the same.  Then it dawned on me that I wasn’t going to be able to change people’s poor decisions (as I saw them)–especially if the ones I wanted to change were made by the person in charge of the whole place.  It also became evident that every company I ever had to work for, recruited from the same place–the human race.  A new company wouldn’t cure an issue that was clearly mine alone.

Maybe I mellowed with age and tired of fighting losing battles.  Maybe I finally realized what was really important to me, and thus, chose my battles.  When I look back at early times, I still feel that many poor management decisions should have been reversed, but at some point I also realized that there is more than one way to accomplish a goal.  Maybe their ways were OK too.  I feel comfortable now with what issues are important to me in the workplace, and how far I can push before I just acquiesce.  I feel I can bend and not break.  It might have benefited me years earlier if I had only looked at the signature line on my paycheck, and realized that it didn’t have my name on it.  Anyone else out there have similar experiences?

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The One Person Who Makes Your Job So Hard

I’ve been blessed to have the privilege of supervising many terrific employees, some in the twilight of their careers, and others who have moved up the ladder.  The mentoring experiences have been very rewarding as I see development of my proteges.  Receiving a call or an email from a former subordinate has been very gratifying.  But I must also mention those former employees of mine who weren’t always the easiest to supervise.

Many years ago when I was a third-shift foreman in a factory, I learned some of my most valuable managerial lessons.  I had been placed in the job because I was a good Industrial Engineering Technician.  Go figure!  No real supervisory training and pretty young to be thrown into such a tough job.  But, it was OJT and a baptism by fire.  I can recall one employee I supervised, and he and I did not get along very well at all.  I felt like I had to watch over him all the time, and I’m sure he rebelled because he thought I was micromanaging him.  Throw in a couple of strong personalities and you have the recipe for confrontation at almost any time.

When I look back at it, I’m not sure I handled things very well.  We both could have done better and thus, benefited the employer.  When I finally left that position, we were friendly and I would see him occasionally outside of work where we would laugh about the good old days.  I learned from my experience, and I’d like to think it helped make me who I am today.  My inexperience and my managerial insecurities were as much to blame as anything.  My suggestion to young supervisors would be to not try to change the world before you get your feet wet.  Learn as much as you can as quickly as you can, and you may have to take a few lumps early.   Don’t let your ego get in the way of a very valuable learning experience.

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You Can Go Back Home—Just Don’t Stay There!

So, you’ve just completed an assignment that by most measurements, has been a successful one.  You’ve cultivated a team that is the envy of your company, but now it is time to move on.  With the new job comes the process of establishing yourself and leading a new group of individuals towards new objectives—whether with the same company or with a new one.

The mutual fondness that existed between you and your old team doesn’t just automatically go away when you leave.  Meeting, emailing, or calling these people helps reinforce the importance of the relationship, and starts the healing of the withdrawal process.  As time moves along, everyone becomes accustomed to the new situations that each faces, and the contacts become fewer and farther between.

Did you ever stop to think about what effect these close relationships might have on the person who replaced you?  If you were the new supervisor, would you feel that your predecessor wasn’t giving you an opportunity to establish yourself with your new team? Would you be intimidated or resentful of the old supervisor?  Would you think that your new subordinates may keep their loyalty with your predecessor and never come around to you?  Remember there are insecurities inherent with a new supervisory assignment anyway.

Many supervisors would have a difficult time letting go and would continue trying to keep a close relationship with their former subordinates.  They would have difficulty leaving their comfort zone.  I’m going to suggest that you have a gradual withdrawal over a relatively short period of time.  The old saying is that you can’t go back home.  I want to change that just a little bit.  You can go back home, but you can’t stay there.

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Right Through Your Eulogy!

Things are going well.  Your team is performing at a high level and you’re all getting kudos for your efforts.  It isn’t out of the question for you to be feeling a great deal of pride, knowing how valuable you have become to the organization.  Why, I bet they couldn’t possibly get along without you!!  Oops!  This is an easy trap to fall into.

True, if you lose a member of your team, it will hurt a little.  But you’ll get the right person for the job and you’ll make things as seamless as possible.  Of course it will be much more difficult, if not impossible, to replace you.  That kind of thinking runs rampant throughout organizations where the supervisors and managers haven’t gotten a real dose of humility.

While in HR, my favorite way of responding to an individual who spoke in those kind of terms was to say:  “We’ll be xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx right through your eulogy.”  Of course all the Xs represent whatever was being done by that individual at any particular company.  It was my way of saying that business will continue, and even thrive, if you’re no longer with us.  I know it is cliche, but there really is no one who is indispensable.  Also remember that nothing good or bad lasts forever.

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Decision Making Gone Wrong

In today’s business world, many place a great value on the ability to make quick decisions.  Sometimes these quick decisions are akin to knee-jerk reactions without any intelligent basis for the decisions.  Anyone can make a snap decision without consideration for the consequences, but you and your company or team are probably better off by taking adequate time to weigh the pros and cons of each alternative.  Short term individual bonuses don’t fall into a life-and-death category in my opinion.

In a recent assignment of mine, managers were allowed AND encouraged to make decisions when they had no experience doing so.  The company had been in such a great position strategically, that no matter how poor the “leaders” were and how ludicrous their decisions were and continued to be, money would still be made for the company.  This did nothing to educate managers on intelligent decision making, that they may be required to use in another organization.  Of course while the money still flowed and the decisions supported what previous “leaders” had done, these newer prodigies were praised and learned some poor habits, and many undesirable results were repeated.

Many times the decisions were made during a heated emotional outburst under the guise of being a person who works well under pressure and is “flexible.”  I’m not saying that taking the time to evaluate will always produce the best outcome, but the probability is certainly much stronger by doing so.   The lethal mixture of inexperience, emotionalism, egotism, and sometimes malice was fairly prevalent in the decision making process of the “leaders”  I encountered in this assignment, and only rarely did coaching or pleading on my part sway them from their power trips.  Who loses in this type of scenario?  The rank-and-file received lower wages which also hampered long-term recruitment and retention; the external customer paid more than it should have; the employees who knew better had to comply or lose their jobs.  But, as I’ve said before, nothing good or bad lasts forever.

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Building a Culture of Mutual Trust

For many years, my career was in the manufacturing sector, and for most of those, the production workers were covered by a collective bargaining agreement.  On numerous occasions as an HR practitioner, I would be a mediator between local management and the local union.  And as is the case with many disagreements, there are two sides to the story and somewhere in between is either the truth, or at least a common denominator where both sides can meet to an amicable solution.  Getting past vehement arguments and monumental egos on both sides was the obstacle course that I needed to navigate to reach a settlement.

Many times the union official was being badgered into pressing an issue that would have been totally indefensible in an arbitration hearing.  Many times the operations manager would be pushing me to “fight” this issue based on “principal.”  Of course the principal would often be the manager’s desire to win, or at least make sure the other side didn’t win.  The union official had the luxury of pushing the issue to a higher step with little responsibility for doing so.  If a higher level union official withdrew the grievance, the local person had a fall guy.

How do you get these two sides together?  I’ve always felt I was strong at seeing the best solution for the company, and I would try to reason with each side to that end.  I tried to think to myself: “what would an arbitrator decide?”  And I really hated it if I had to send an issue up the ladder to be resolved that we should have handled internally.  I wasn’t always successful at getting issues resolved locally.  Sometimes the local union won the arbitration; sometimes management was victorious; sometimes the arbitrator just completely surprised everyone.

When you’re trying to build a culture of integrity and fair play when it didn’t exist in that facility before, you’ve got your work cut out for you.  For all the associated challenges, it was a rewarding part of my job, and I was good at it.

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Bulls**t Bingo

Well, if you’ve worked in a company with more than 150 employees in it, you’re probably very accustomed to the Bulls**t Bingo game.  I’ve copied and pasted many of those words below that make up the vocabulary of the pseudo-intellectual corporate robots whose only mission in life is to use as many as possible in a short time to fool someone else in the company into thinking that he/she is the savior of the organization because of using that vocabulary.  The words in and of themselves are only of value when used to improve the company.

knowledge base, win-win, 24/7, performance indicators,  best practice, fast track, empower, risk management, revisit, blame culture, result-driven, value-added, silo, out of the loop, pinch point, at the end of the day, benchmark, core business, touch base, synergy, I hear what you say, networking, differential, the big picture, ballpark, show stoppers, paradigm, proactive, process mapping, metrics, mindset, envision, core competencies, strategic fit, analogous.

It was always entertaining to sit in one of many corporate or facility meetings where wannabees were jockeying for position on the company totem pole by using as many of the above words–or plenty more that I haven’t listed–in their allotted time to speak.  Of course if they couldn’t get it all in, a follow up memo or email highlighting the critical ones, was in order.

My mindset at the end of the day is that I see the big picture and envision a new paradigm where our synergy is manifested in the performance indicators and metrics of our core competencies, and we can become a best practice leader 24/7 so that there’s a win-win for all involved.

I look forward to hearing if the game is played in your organization.

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Happy Thanksgiving!!

Please enjoy the holiday with your family and friends and remember all the things that you have to appreciate.  Remember Nothing Good or Bad Lasts Forever!!

New Post Next Monday, the 30th!!

The Changing Work Atmosphere During the Holidays

With Thanksgiving rapidly approaching, I started thinking about some of my work memories that occurred in November and December.  Two of them readily come to mind.

Many years ago when I was still in manufacturing, our plant was giving every employee a free turkey for Thanksgiving.  The only stipulation?  They (several hundred frozen turkeys)  were to be delivered to our plant on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, and then employees would have to come by to pick one up to take home.  It was a fun few hours, being up in the truck on a chilly day and passing down turkeys to your employees.  The vast majority were very grateful.  Notice I said, vast majority.  There were a few who complained that they were working the off shift and had to come in on their personal time off to pick up their turkey.  A little downer, but didn’t distract from a great day.

My absolute favorite day of the year, is the last working day before the Christmas holiday.  It always seemed to me that all employees were pleasant to all other employees.  Local union leadership would stop in and chat about families and other small talk.  I don’t ever remember any grievances filed on that last day.  I often thought, why can’t we save some of this and carry it over into the next year?

But alas, I knew that the first work day after the holidays were over, would bring back the frustrations, negatives, and petty feelings that permeated the rest of the year.  Oh, well, it was fun while it lasted.

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If You Work Long Enough….

As we begin our managerial careers, most of us start out supervising people who are older than we are.  Some of us react negatively and consider it to be a threat.  Others use the opportunity to learn from people with experience.  Have you given much thought to what it will be like on the other side of the equation?

Two things are certain in your career if you work long enough:

1. You’ll eventually become a number to an organization (with very rare exception)
2. You’ll eventually work for someone who is younger than you are

When I was younger, I’m sure I felt intimidated by the older subordinate–especially if I received a promotion into the managerial role and that person was also a candidate.  That prompted me to consider how my new, younger supervisor felt about having to come in and supervise me.  I sure hope I practiced what I’m about to say.   I felt I was talented and had much to offer, but wanted my newer and younger supervisor to make use of what I brought, and to recognize me for my efforts.  The latter was sometimes an issue.  To watch my new and younger supervisor take credit for my efforts or ideas was difficult to swallow.

Now I do understand that the supervisor does get the credit for his/her department’s successes, and I’m OK with that.  However, occasionally letting others know where the ideas came from would have gone a long way to helping us bond.  Otherwise a feeling of resentment grows.  As I look back, I hope my older subordinates knew that I wasn’t there for any personal agenda, and any mistakes I made were out of ignorance and not malice.  Now I hope that my younger supervisor feels that he/she can certainly learn from me and that I’m not there to undermine authority.

Wherever you are in your career, think what your older subordinate is going through, or what your younger supervisor is experiencing.  Anticipate the insecurities each is experiencing, and remember that you’ll occupy each of those roles at some time in your career–if you work long enough.

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Everything Runs in Cycles OR Nothing Good or Bad Lasts Forever

In my many years in the business world, I’ve seen plenty of ups and downs in the economy as a whole, and with the companies where I was working.  I used to joke that my career was filled with a great deal of non-profit organization experience, but the companies didn’t start out that way.  So when I’ve been laid off in the past, I always knew that there was something just as good or better waiting for me, and that always proved to be true.  Even when I stayed with companies during tough times, I knew that the cycle would end and the company would improve the bottom line in the future.

What I’d like to discuss is how some of my organizations reacted during the good, or high cycle times.  I started at one company at the peak of profitability and was in the process of decorating my office.  I had two posters that I wanted hung in my office, and between the two of them, their total cost was about $15.  I was expecting to spend a small amount of money to hang them, but found out that the people in charge of seeing that the work got done, spent over $800 to get them framed.  I was appalled but was told that we had to spend the money while it was there or we would lose it for the next year.

I don’t know how many companies still employ tactics like this, but I’ve always thought this was ludicrous.  Even in good times, I tried to be a little more frugal than my peers.  Everything that goes up will eventually come down.  How do you handle these things where you work?

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The Matrix, Part DO

I recently spoke to an old friend of mine who manages a group of people in a professional office setting.  Although she is the office leader, there are company employees residing in that office who do not report to her.  Most individuals understand the delicate balance that exists and realize that everyone must carry a portion of the load for the entity to be successful.  Unfortunately for my friend, one critical piece of the puzzle hasn’t gotten that memo.  His failure and almost disdain for producing what is expected — or even close to what is expected — is jeopardizing office profitability.  A reduction in force may be necessary.  And — you guessed it, he does not report to her.

How do you deal with a poor or underperforming crucial element of your team’s success when you aren’t that person’s supervisor?  Some might suggest going immediately to his supervisor.  Others might suggest going immediately to your own supervisor.  My initial thoughts are to go directly to the source so that he understands what the problem is from my point-of-view.  Most likely he does in fact know my problem, but I want to be able to try diplomatic face-to-face discussions before bringing out the heavy hitters.  If he doesn’t understand the relationship of his efforts to my success, then this would be a chance for me to educate him.  If he becomes totally defensive or completely ignores my goodwill gesture, then he’s left me no choice but to go around him.  I’d start with my supervisor first before speaking with his.

You will probably run into a similar situation sometime during your managerial career.  Always remember that the success of your organization or team is the primary reason you were hired.

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Take Me Out to the Ballgame

Another baseball season has come and gone, and the Yankees have won the World Series.  Now we start hearing those opinions of those who say that baseball is too boring or too slow.  I have been a fan for years, and my reply is that you don’t really understand the game’s intricacies or its history if you feel that way.

A couple of things stand out and make me appreciate the game–not necessarily the players or owners or the issues with performance enhancing drugs–but the game.  It’s the only game where the defense controls the ball, and thus, the action.  It has no time clock, so as long as you can still hit and keep the game going, you haven’t lost.  To me, that’s a great analogy for the American spirit.  It’s not over till it’s over, as Yogi Berra once said.

People are always saying that it isn’t filled with action like football, and I can tell you that analysis of football games shows that in an average NFL game of 3 hours, there is less than 10 minutes of actual play.  The rest is comprised of replays from every angle and beer commercials.  Don’t get me wrong, I love football, but not at the expense of the American pasttime.  No other American sport can boast the history of baseball, or the exalted records and time comparisons.  My one visit to the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown was like a trip to a hallowed cathedral.  Lou Gehrig’s locker, the plaques, and the other countless memorabilia seemed sacred.

Baseball is still a game sometimes played by out-of-shape men who are able to hit a round object with another round object while it is thrown at nearly 100 miles per hour.  You don’t need testosterone-crazed men with a penchant for violence to put on a show.  Also, unlike football and basketball, it hasn’t been necessary to change the rules of the game regularly.  It’s a beautiful game and can be played by athletes and everyday men and women alike.

I can’t wait for spring to go the ballpark for the first time in the season and see green grass and the hopes of all the teams being rekindled.  It still brings out the little boy in me.

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Sizzle and/or Steak

We’re seduced by one but rely on the other.  The analogy works very well in the business world.  We’re drawn to presentation but once we get past that, we hope there’s an ample portion of steak to keep us going.  Think how many times you’ve seen the flashy individual, or consultant, get the plum job or assignment based purely upon his/her sizzle.  The show was enough to win over the decision-maker, but when it came time to produce, the steak was one big piece of gristle.

In an ideal situation, you’d like to be able to produce a very enticing sizzle, but then have the steak to back it up.  Of the two, having steak is probably the best in the long run.  However, you want to be able to make a presentation that sells.  I’ve always thought of myself as having good steak but very little sizzle, and have been able to rationalize that in my mind.  How do you feel about your personal situation?

When you’re choosing new staff do you give ample consideration to what’s behind their sizzle?  Your organization will be feeding on the steak long after the sizzle has gone silent.  Your team will surely recognize which is more important to you, and may adapt their agendas to your preferences.

This will be a rather short post.  I’d like to get some discussion going.  What do you think?

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You Can’t Please Everyone

One of the real challenges of being a manager is maintaining your focus when you have to make an unpopular decision that adversely impacts company employees (perhaps some of your own team).  Today’s real-world examples might be layoffs, a reduction in benefits, or a wage freeze.  Loyalties are questioned, friendships are lost, and you start questioning your effectiveness as a manager.  If you were not anticipating moments like these when you agreed to become a manager, then you went into it wearing rose-colored glasses.

That fine balance between feelings and numbers is one that will keep you awake at nights, and there are instances when each side of the spectrum should receive more consideration.  If you make your decision to reduce your workforce, please ensure that you have based it strictly upon business needs–not on any personal relationships you have.  If you have a way to make the numbers work to the benefit of the organization, and you can keep all the employees, of course that’s a no-brainer.

When employees are laid off, the impact can be so devastating and your sound business rationalization to them won’t soothe their wounds.  Your best option is to handle the situation as professionally as possible, allowing the employee(s) the opportunity to maintain dignity.  One of these employees may have been a close friend for a number of years, and this action may in fact drastically alter your relationship in the future.  Unfortunately, this is the bitter side of your job.  You already knew about the sweet side–money, prestige, and perks.  Coming to the realization that you’re not going to be able to make everyone happy all the time is a rude awakening to some new managers.

Always remember that as a manager, your loyalty remains with your employer–so long as you can bend but not break.

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