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.
