Last week I was with a
client walking through a building with the Facility Manager and his boss. We were preparing site-specific orientation
in that facility, and I was along to document the pertinent items required for
new hire training.
As we were walking, the
boss pointed out items the Facility Manager needed to improve. However, in the same breath as talking about
how they needed to move a piece of equipment or get some material relocated,
the boss kept offering to DO the work for the Facility Manager. The first couple of times I kept my mouth
shut, thinking that perhaps the Facility Manager was going to speak up and
remind his boss that this was his area and he could take care of those
items. However, after the fifth time,
when the Facility Manager did not speak up as the boss told him that he would
take care of yet another little detail about that facility, I just couldn’t
stop myself.
“You know, (Boss),” I
said gently (and compassionately!), “You are super busy with all of your work
already. I think (Facility Manager)
knows how to do these things, and being that this is the (Facility), it is
pretty clearly in his scope. Maybe we
should let him get this stuff done instead of you taking more
work on your plate. What do you
think?”
The boss agreed with me,
and later thanked me for helping him to maintain some distance, confessing that
one of the hardest things for him to do is to let go of tactical work and trust
his people to get things done. The next
day I spoke with the Facility Manager as well, and he was appreciative of the
ability to maintain ownership over the area for which he is responsible and
being held accountable.
Granted, as a consultant,
I am not always privy to the history of personnel performance, nor the track
record of companies maintaining accountability for work without micromanaging
it. In fact, after having read Traction by Gino Wickman, I’m
looking forward to a few upcoming opportunities to help work on EOS with
clients; the L10 weekly meeting aspect seems to offer a very elegant way of
maintaining focus and visibility on “Rock” level priority work without loading
too much on any one individual’s plate.
However, it seems to me that if you won’t trust your employees to get
work done in the area where you hired them to be responsible, you’re just going
to keep piling work and worry on for yourself.
And that sounds pretty unsustainable.
Ed Batista is an Executive Coach and lecturer at the
Stanford Graduate School of Business, his article “The
Illusion of Effectiveness (Doing vs. Leading)” describes how while “doing” might
have been how people were promoted to leadership positions, it is not often what
is needed to keep one in that role. He discusses
how leading requires a lot of NOT doing, but coaching others to do better.
I have yet to meet
someone who can live another person’s life in addition to his or her own. Those who truly feel compelled to lead must be
comfortable with coaching and not doing. A sustainable alternative to doing work for
employees could be to set some clear expectations about the employee’s
responsibilities and accountability, then offer training, guidance, and help
when needed, but basically get the heck out of the way and let people do their
work for themselves. Then use those
awesome weekly L10 meetings to maintain focus and thus elevate everyone in the
group to accomplish more meaningful work with less stress and worry.
Read
this article and more on AJC’s blog, and sign up for our newsletter online at: http://andreajonesconsulting.com/blog.aspx
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