Effective Managers Spend Little Time in the Weeds.

Effective managers know one thing, spending time in the weeds (aka – being too “hands-on”) is counter-productive and can sabotage their ability to lead and provide direction. A manager who spends too much time in the weeds by deciding to do tasks normally reserved for direct reports or other resources essentially abandons their core responsibility – the one of planning and managing resources.

Some might argue that managers that get their “hands dirty” are team players, and therefore gain the respect from their teams, but in the long run these managers risk becoming ineffective and losing the respect from their teams and peers.  The problem is simple, when a manager gets pulled into the weeds it is usually an indication that resources have been improperly utilized or planning has been inadequate. A manager that is constantly in the weeds essentially is failing to realize and/or ineffectively dealing with a greater problem that needs to be addressed.  Not addressing the resourcing and planning problems will not only lead the manager to spend more time in the weeds, but will also impact the teams credibility and trust in the manager – as it becomes more evident that the manager is unable to manage.

Planning and resource allocation are the two main reasons organizations need managers. If they are not managing they are not doing their job!

However, there are times when getting in the weeds is either inevitable or tactically required. From the tactical standpoint, a manager getting in the weeds can send a strong message to others that they failed to satisfactorily execute a task.  Done correctly it can increase performance and prevent future recurrences.

On the “inevitable” front, this is what I like to call a warning flag. Good managers that are pushed into the weeds because of circumstances out of their control are doomed. These circumstances could be due to financial constraints which do not allow organizations to properly engage and allocate resources, or worse, crisis situations where directors and VPs take hands-on management roles, thus becoming the de-facto managers and pushing local managers into the weeds.

Managers who find themselves in such situations need to quickly assess if proper decisions are being made at higher hierarchical levels. A no to this assessment probably merits ‘refreshing the resume’.

The Utopian view of managers is that they never go in the weeds. The reality is that good managers will occasionally venture there to support and coach their resources as well as occasionally filling the gaps while new resources are engaged.

 

 

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Great Leaders are Successful Failures

It isn’t a secret; the world we live in today is the result of some of the greatest failures humanity has seen. However, it isn’t the actual failures that resulted in many of the objects, events, and governments that currently make up the world, but rather the attitude of the individuals who learned from the failures. (The apparent oxymoron – “Successful Failures” - is in reality how everything works.)

One of the greatest attributes a person can have is their resilience in the face of failure. Their ability to learn from the events and circumstances is what separates the great from the rest. This isn’t easy to accomplish because of the stigma of failure and the real world results of failing. The stigma of failing is engrained in us from a very young age: Parents scolding us for bad grades, coaches benching us for making a bad play, and even friends laughing at us for spilling a tray in the cafeteria. In most scenarios only two choices are possible; Try again, or give up. Sometimes the pain, in most cases emotional, is what drives either decision.

Great leaders will not only be masters of failure, but will ensure their followers embrace failure. These leaders will motivate others to continue trying, but most importantly teach them how to learn from prior failures and make the necessary changes needed to succeed. (Not changing brings us to Einstein’s famous definition of Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.).  

Great leaders make failure painless, and instead find ways for individuals to ‘love’ the benefits of failure. Thomas Edison summed this spirit up best when he said “I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.”

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The importance of a 15-minute daily huddle with your team.

One of the biggest mistakes I’ve seen in business is managers not establishing a routine daily team meeting. The benefits are basic but the risks of not holding routine meetings can be catastrophic. 

The daily team meeting has one major purpose; to align the team. Many things can happen during the daily course of business and keeping teams informed allows them to adjust their priorities and schedules according to events and changing company needs. Another benefit is that when information is shared, team members can also share their experiences and insight. This is an important point that many managers – specially those that do not have the hands-on expertise like some individuals on their teams – fail to take advantage of. 

Another critical benefit of the daily team meeting is that it gives team members a ‘guaranteed’ opportunity to meet with their boss and bring up or escalate any issues critical to them executing their tasks. Most managers don’t realize that in the course of the day, their schedules will not converge well with their teams, and thus the opportunity to communicate diminishes. (TIP: a good indicator that you may not be easily accessible to your team is the number of emails you receive from them).

Risks of not holding a daily meeting can be countless. Not aligning teams typically results in teams working inefficiently, completing tasks that may no longer be critical, and failing to react to new urgent needs. Studies show that productivity increases when employees have aligned goals and not communicating with them consistently allows mis-alignment of goals and consequently a reduction in productivity. In a worse case scenario, not having daily meetings could even prevent members of the team from receiving safety-relevant information.

Setting up 15 minute team meeting should be reasonably easy. The operative word here is “15-minutes”. Individuals are typically busy; setting up daily update meetings that consume too much time may prompt individuals to stop attending regularly or not share information openly. Meetings can be held in common work areas, meeting rooms, and in case not all team members are on-site, daily conference calls will do the trick.

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Drop the F-Bomb occasionally to keep your team on task.

More often than not managers are not (or dare I say never) at the helm of a self-directing dream team. That is, a team of overachievers that always remains on task, can change priorities to match the organization’s needs, and never makes mistakes.

In reality a manager will not have a self-directing dream team (why would you need a manager then?), and will spend a good bit of time ensuring his team knows organizational priorities, critical topics, and driving execution. However, at times there will be team members, or the team as a whole, which loses focus on important things, or begins to digress from the direction that has been set by the manager.

Dropping an occasional F-Bomb (or cursing for that matter) can quickly convey urgency, a needed change of direction, or even disappointment on poor execution. Used sparingly, it can help a team understand a manager’s most critical expectations, and also improve execution.

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If you set everything on fire, you won’t have enough firefighters.

Firefighters will very seldom have enough people and water to put out a fire immediately. They have to choose (prioritize) where they can effectively douse the flames to first contain the fire - essentially ignoring the rest of the fire - and then work it down until it’s extinguished

In crisis situations everything becomes a fire, or so it seems. Crisis management requires management to put an extra effort in prioritizing tasks and assigning them to the correct resources. The real challenge is that in many cases, the crisis situations stem from the very same management team charged with prioritizing, for not helping set priorities to the point that they started the fires.
When we fail to give our teams priorities, and constantly ask for multiple things “right now” we significantly raise the risk that nothing will get done, or that the task that gets done will be one less critical to the success of the team. As things start to become fires the teams charged with executing get overwhelmed (and pardon the cliché – burned)

Here is the problem; when individuals are given multiple URGENT tasks simultaneously, studies have shown that they will likely complete the easiest ones first. Essentially, as a manager you have inadvertently relinquished all control to your team and their own logic for prioritizing. Unless you have a team of all-star performers, it is likely that tasks will not get done in optimum order, and in a worse case you may end up with many half-started tasks that never get completed.

The manager’s job is to point the limited water cannons to the area where they can have the greatest impact.

My method to prioritize, and how I’ve witnessed many successful managers prioritize successfully, is by setting a daily meeting with your team to review tasks and set priorities. By doing this, even when everything is urgent, you set the focus for your team, and you have full control over the execution. As the truly urgent tasks are being completed, you can then delay (or run interference) on the other tasks until your team is ready to take those on.

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Say what you do and do what you say!

The statement is very simplistic, but if organizations would simplify their quality systems to just that one rule they’d be surprised how easy managing the system would become.

Whether you are following ISO 9001, ISO/TS 16949, VDA 6.3 or any other system, there are tremendous amounts of details and other rules that need to be followed. Most organizations will address the requirements through a series of processes and documentation from the beginning, but later struggle with maintaining the related documentation. 

Saying what you do and then doing it means nothing more than “follow the documented process”. If the actual process changes, then make sure the documentation is changed to reflect the new process.

Oddly enough, one of the biggest contributors to the disconnect between documentation and physical processes is continuous improvement. This becomes even more evident when processes are unstable and thus more improvement loops are taking place. Ironically, one of the reasons for why process stability is unachievable is because the current process is not documented properly. This opens up issues with ensuring consistency amongst your team, as well as a standardized point from which to measure your improvements.

The fix is simple, stress documentation integrity with your team. If a process changes, ensure instructions, FMEAs, Control Plans, KPI trees, and any other relevant documents to the affected process are updated. Drive this point home… Say what you do and do what you say!

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Stop the insanity and lead your team to embrace change.

One of the phrases I get drawn to every time I struggle with accomplishing something is one coined by Albert Einstein:

Insanity: Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

It is a rather funny, but true way to quickly shed light on an incorrect method or process being the culprit of a problem.  There is one absolute truth in business and manufacturing… Things change.
Customer needs change, technology changes, people change, and the list can go on forever. The odd thing is that many organizations fail to abide by this truth and they continue to conduct business the same way. A classic example of this is Blackberry. We all know what happened to them. They failed to change and kept doing the same thing over and over. Granted, they are still trying to reinvent themselves since they were nearly run out of business by the likes of Apple and Samsung, but they are now behind the curve and they gave up an enormous lead on account of not allowing the culture of change to permeate their organization.

Successful companies and more so, successful managers, embrace change. Change ensures many things for teams and individuals. The top three, in my opinion, are these:

-          It eliminates Boredom

-          It allows teams to learn from mistakes

-          Allows teams to shift focus towards anticipation (rather than reaction).

Boredom.

Boredom comes from doing the same things over and over. We are always taught to organize ourselves and make sure we follow routines. However, in those routines we must, and those of our teams, there needs to be room for adjustment, training, and continuous improvement. Although not at the top of the list, one of the answers I get most out of high performing candidates during interviews is that they are ‘bored’ in their current job.  

Make sure your team is constantly challenged and tested. Encourage them to try different approaches when current ones fail. Push them out of their comfort zones so they can experience other angles. Change their jobs, roles and responsibilities.

Learn from Mistakes

When your team’s actions are leading to less than optimal results it is sometimes hard to identify the reason. Hence, many times we are trapped into trying the same thing over and over. Trying a different approach at solving a problem will inevitably lead to a different result. If the result is worse, then the initial approach is somewhat validated, and if the result is better, then the initial approach has henceforth been improved. Either way the team learns something.

Anticipation

We have all heard about being proactive versus reactive. This is easier said than done. A proactive culture, one that anticipates problems in the future, can only be fostered with a culture that demands change. Blackberry did not demand change because it was successful at what it was doing, by the time it was evident that change was needed, the very first person removed from the team was the CEO. He had not embraced a culture of change, and thus his team was ill prepared for anticipating what the user friendly iPhones were going to do to the smartphone market.

Anticipation is what makes good organizations great. In my experience it’s always more fun and rewarding to improve things and to plan ahead as opposed to having to fight fires. Anticipation also has a great benefit, it allows teams to work under less stress where timelines are built around teams and resources.

When fighting fires, timelines are a moot point since the issues have to be addressed ‘yesterday’ .  Teams get worn out quickly when they are fighting fires on a daily basis. Most fires are not about getting ahead, but about getting back to ‘normal’, and because of this most individuals do not feel rewrded if they are putting out fires that could have been… yes, you guessed it… anticipated.

As a manager you’ll be well served by creating a culture of change; stay engaged with your team and encourage individuals to try different approaches in their daily routines.

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How many managers does it take to change a light bulb?

Possible Answers:

1)    "I want a detailed memo about this issue till tomorrow's morning."

2)     "You were supposed to have changed that light bulb last week!"

3)    "We haven't got a policy on that".

4)    "I am on my way to a very important meeting, so we'll discuss it some other time."

5)     Three. Two to find out if it needs changing, and one to tell an employee to change it.

Change is all around us. People change, seasons change, weather changes, and pretty much everything changes. In the work place change is inevitable, however it sometimes seems that everyone and everything is against it. Following the possible outcomes of the joke above perhaps we can learn the lessons contained within

1)    "I want a detailed memo about this issue till tomorrow's morning."

a.       At times it seems that the effort to accomplish simple changes are too great. When the effort to execute change is to high, people will steer clear or avoid the topic. We have all worked in organizations where at times it appears that procedures and standards get in the way of quick and effective change. Enable change by removing unneeded barriers or by providing alternatives.

 

2)    "You were supposed to have changed that light bulb last week!"

a.       Change is only possible if the resources are available. All too often we manage teams that are spending 60 hours a week just maintaining the status quo. All of the sudden, a small emergency or surprise (like a burned out bulb) goes unattended. Managers need to make sure they allow for proper work-life balance so that people can proactively engage in change.

b.      Another point stands out in this response… all too often managers themselves find themselves in situation where they are unable to properly engage and follow-up with their teams, thus resulting in the dreaded declaration of “I told you a week ago.”  Make time to stay in contact and in touch with your team. Follow-up with them specially on issues that may not be part of their daily routines… (hint: Change)

3)    "We haven't got a policy on that".

a.       Don’t cop out on change! As a leader you must set the example. If you don’t have an answer, at minimum provide guidance, or commit to provide guidance at a later time.

4)    "I am on my way to a very important meeting, so we'll discuss it some other time."

a.       Similar to above, this is a way of coping out on your team. Furthermore, this also carries the message that you do not want to listen to your team, or do not think there is any urgency to change.

5)    Three. Two to find out if it needs changing, and one to tell an employee to change it.

a.       This one is a zinger for all managers. It illustrates the top heavy organization that stands in the way of nimble and agile change.  It further illustrates that management roles may not be clear, and thus a simple “Bulb Change” requires involvement from multiple managers. Of all the barriers that can stand in the way of change, this is perhaps the most significant. The more individuals that get involved in decision making, the greater the chance for disagreement and of course, delays in directing the task at hand… in this case, changing a light bulb.

As managers we are all too eager to put in our 5 cents. The real manager is able to empower his team, give minor strategic direction, but most importantly, stay out of the way of those that need to execute the change.

 

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Crises and Communication - the important art of listening to your team's cries for help.

I speak from experience here, in fact we all do… when we were young – before we uttered our first words – we cried to get attention. We wanted our parents to listen to help solve a problem. We were cold, we were hungry, or our tummy’s hurt. In fact, reading medical journals, we never cried for the sake of crying. There was usually something we could not solve and needed assistance with.

This core human behavior doesn’t change much as we grow older, and the incredible parallels between the crying baby and those stressed out team members working for us in a crisis require that we, as mangers, pay attention to them in order to provide leadership and guidance so they can perform their functions.

This is one of the hardest things to accomplish, and I am yet to see an organization where the complete or partial shutdown of communication into the management level does not occur as a result of a crisis. Because they are tasked with leading organizations out of crisis, managers are in a particularly tough position since their job tenures are likely tied to their success.

Unfortunately crises bring stress, long hours, weekends, phone calls at 2:00am and many other circumstances that managers dislike, and that in turn has a tendency to lead to frustration which can easily be ‘shared’ with their team in the form of yelling, micromanaging, and not listening to the underlying problems. 

Unlike a baby, who’s unattended crying may result in disruptions to our sleep patterns, in the business world, not attending to our teams ‘cries’ for help can have dire consequences. Baby’s, by nature, will continue to cry until the problem is resolved, however adults, at some point stop ‘crying’ or appropriately said, they stop escalating issues and seeking guidance from managers. When this happens those issues can become the foundation of the next crisis.

Successful crisis managers, however, have figured out that in a crisis it is imperative to have a team willing to stand with you through those long hours, and endless weekends. The greatest thing you can do for your team in order to get out of crisis mode is this - Make a special effort to communicate and listen to your team – they are not babies! They will not only stand behind you in the current crisis, but they will provide the solutions for the current crisis and they will keep you from leading them into the next one.

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8D Process : Define the problem accurately and you'll find an effective solution

In my 20+ years of manufacturing I have read and/or worked on hundreds of 8Ds. I would venture to say that less than 10% of those led to effective solutions. The biggest problem in those ineffective 8Ds was the problem definition. 

If the problem is not properly defined based on facts and data you may be leading your team down a path that will yield less than optimal results. 

Think about it… how many times have you read an 8D with a problem definition such as “None-Functioning Motor” instead of the more precise definition of “Cracked magnet inside motor”.

Starting with a poor problem definition can make it extremely difficult to find the root cause without assessing every component and every process tied to those components (extremely time consuming). However, with the smaller scope in the example of the "cracked magnet" the focus of the team would be around the magnet and the factors and processes that influence it.

The best 8D methodology I have had experience with was the Faurecia QRCI. Their methodology forced a re-definition of the problem after the initial evaluation of the facts and data regarding the parts. It went as far as placing the redefinition after D3 (Containment) in order to force the utilization of the containment data to further narrow the problem. In the QRCI methodology, the 5-Why process does not begin until the problem has been properly defined.

The logical question to ask is why is this so difficult to do? In my experience the biggest problem has been timely and un-obstructed access to the “Scene of the Crime”. In many cases the parts are removed from where the issue was detected, the parts are repaired, tampered with or even lost. This significantly limits the ability to gather the facts and data, leading most individuals to fill in the gaps with assumptions and more likely than not, defining the problem too vaguely, or incorrectly.

If you place a priority on evidence gathering and put procedures in place such as stopping the production line when a defect is detected, your ability to properly define and consequently find and effective solution go up significantly.


- More on Problem Definition:

The Key to Innovation: Problem Definition (Part I)

The Key to Innovation: Problem Definition (Part II)

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