It was Friday afternoon (about 3:30), and I got called into the VP’s office without explanation. Ten minutes later, I got the answer, “your boss has resigned, and we have decided to give you his former position, manager of the department.”
I suppose surprise followed by shock would be an excellent way to describe my first reactions. Following a brief half-hour discussion, I returned to my office and was again surprised when, what was my former peers now my staff congratulated me. It seems they new of my promotion before I did.
There is no question that the world of social media has surpassed the rumor mill, and not only did the staff know about my promotion, but the rest of the company, including my wife. When I got home that evening, she promptly stated how proud she was of me and that there was no question that I deserved the promotion. This was followed by, “did you get a raise” of course, I think she already had it earmarked for great things.
An interesting point, by the time the government takes out taxes, the company removes the medical and misc. Benefits (a word I have never understood, when they take your money, why is it called a benefit?) you don’t have much left to get overly excited about.
Well, that was Friday, and now it is Monday and the first day of a new job! I am sure many thoughts, questions, and ideas run through your head. Something I learned many years ago from a well-seasoned manager of a pizza plant has always stuck in my head. “When you are new on a job, don’t try and tell everyone what you think you know or want to do. Spend a couple of weeks watching, asking questions, and learning before acting and making a fool out of yourself.”
“MANAGERS ARE APPOINTED FROM ABOVE, LEADERS FROM BELOW.”
Let’s change our emphasis from manager to leader because that’s what a manager does; they lead a team of persons (staff) to achieve agreed results as part of the goals set forth by a corporation’s mission, vision, and values.
Leadership is critically important, as seen in many ways and for many reasons. An example, many years ago (more than I want to remember), I was working with one of our teams installing an automated manufacturing process in a fortune 100 company when to my surprise, the company’s president showed up. His appearance surprised most of the workers, and his greeting was directed to me with “hello, Gene, nice to see you.”
Mr. Jones (not his real name), whom I knew and had done business with over the years, asked, “if I could spare a couple of minutes?” The answer was yes; he suggested his office for coffee; however, I requested the cafeteria as it would be closer to my team if they needed me.
We had a brief discussion about a new project, at the end of which Bob (again, not his real name) asked if I would mind a personal question; the answer was, “of course not.”
He said, “I have always heard your staff call you Gene, no matter where we are, and if I ask you a question about a project, you always know exactly where and what is going on with it. Gene, how do you keep on top of everything? By the way, no one calls me Bob anymore, and I never seem to know what is going on in the business’s operations; I don’t know why.
Leadership has critical elements, communication, respect, accountability, and responsibility. We don’t try to put them in a priority of order because they are present all the time, carefully intertwined, and woven into the fabric of leadership success. The other question is how we use them and how they fit into our everyday performance. We will try to answer this and other questions in the following blogs.
It has been said that a picture is worth a thousand words. I will not put any more words in this blog than needed; the chances are you wouldn’t read them anyway. This picture, with as few words as possible shows a generic organization structure with performance statements.
Everyone in the organizational structure is responsible and accountable for their specific task(s) of work (assigned or assumed). Each task of work is required to achieve agreed results and goals, and each has predecessors and successors on its path to help attain those goals and agreed results. Just so you don’t forget, every task to be performed, no matter whom it belongs to, from the president on down, is essential; otherwise, why do it?
Everything we discuss in this blog will relate to performance (staff or management) and the many factors involved. Probably the most critical of these factors is that of communication. In most cases, the success or failure of performance can be traced back to communication of some form or lack thereof.
A manager/leader is responsible and accountable for their work, department, and staff. However, they are responsible for their actions but not for their staff, yet their responsibility is to help their staff become accountable.
Our series of books entitled “BUM Books” with the first in the series entitled “How to be a BUM,” and translated into working terms, means “learning to be the best manager/leader you can be from the bottom up.” As stated earlier and repeated here, senior management has a clear and defined responsibility to an organization – – develop a strategic plan, its mission, vision, and value, then ensure it is carried out successfully. Of equal importance, management / leadership must maintain focus on that strategic plan.
So, what are the rest of us supposed to do, you know, managers/leaders and staff members? Where do we go from here, and how do we get there? These books are about helping you achieve agreed results and supporting the strategic plan from the bottom up.
I have had heated discussions with presidents and senior-level managers about the following statement. Still, I will stand by it based on many years of experience working with companies of all kinds and descriptions, from the government to the private sector, pharmaceutical to automotive industries.
SENIOR MANAGEMENT DEVELOPS STRATEGIC PLANS AND CORPORATE FOCUS; HOWEVER, AN ORGANIZATION’S STAFF (WORKFORCE) MAKES A COMPANY SUCCESSFUL OR CAUSES IT TO FAIL.
True responsibility falls upon the workforce (staff) and the leadership/ management team(s). Although this sounds like a relatively simple statement, the challenges ahead are anything but easy. It would be difficult to list all the risks, issues, and challenges as they will vary daily and from company to company.
In future blogs we will tackle all of the many issues managers and leaders face and as we go along, please join in telling us your issues (just fill in the contact form) and we will include discussions and potential solutions which may help you resolve those issues.
Cheers Gene and the Blog team