Empowering or Abrogating Responsibility

Are you empowering – or abrogating responsibility?

There’s an old piece of advice to management from the military.  It goes something like this:  “Give a man a shovel and tell him to dig a ditch x feet wide and y feet deep.”  The message is that he’ll figure out how to do it. 

That works well for ditches and other fairly routine tasks.  BUT – as I’ve learned through the years, it doesn’t work well under many other circumstances.  For example: 

• ·       If the task is complicated and the person to whom it has been assigned hasn’t any experience with it.
• ·       If it’s too easy for someone not experienced to make it too complicated.
• ·       If the person to whom the task has been assigned doesn’t know the value of what’s being asked of her/him and sells it much too cheaply.
• ·       If you want it a certain way – and haven’t given them a model to work from.

I could go on with examples, but you get what I mean.  In my years of consulting I’ve seen so many examples of people doing work that is unnecessary or too complicated because no one taught them how to do it the simple way. 

Recently, I was at fault and lost some money because of it.  This situation (which I will describe in a minute) is what stimulated me to write this blog.  It’s not about the workplace – but I think it makes the point. 

I hired two people to do a garage sale for me.  I had a number of things that were no longer needed and were just cluttering up space in my townhouse.  Among the items I gave them were two small antique (eighteenth century) tables and 40 years accumulation of Halloween and Christmas decorations.  I didn’t put any value on these – and apparently they didn’t hear me say don’t sell them too cheaply.  Because they practically gave them – and a bunch of other stuff as well – away. 

I was given $125.00 for items that collectively were in the thousands.  They actually sold one of the tables for $1.00.  (Yes, one dollar!)

Clearly more my fault than theirs.  I should have put a minimum price on the items and told them clearly that if they didn’t get at least that much money they should return the items to me.  I trusted their intelligence and competence – my mistake.

OK – yes not a workplace example…..

Here’s one:  I was brought into a startup company to set up their bookkeeping, insurance, and filing systems.  Rather – to undue what someone had done badly and set them up correctly. 

As a new startup they hired one of the executive’s wives to be receptionist and administrative assistant.  She was lovely – but inexperienced.  They tasked her with setting up all administrative systems – and what she created was a complicated mess with checks and cross-checks and files for every day (rather than monthly) etc.

Here’s another one:   While consulting to a large transportation agency, I was in the finance department and noticed something that I questioned.  The accounts receivable clerk was taking an adding machine tape of the checks she was about to deposit.  I asked her why and she responded that’s what she had been taught.  Well, yes, I too was taught to take tapes back before computers.  We were taught to take a tape of the checks and another of the deposit slip to make sure they balanced.  Good idea when you don’t already have a total from the computer and another total from the check endorsing machine.  In other words she was doing double work.

These are simple examples of tiny things that waste tons of time.

Here’s another good one:

In a City permit department, I discovered that it took two weeks to get a certificate for something that did NOT require an inspection.  Why two weeks, I asked.  Well, we have to change the paper in the copier and we don’t want to have to do it every day.  My solution – which they followed:  Get a dedicated small printer (about $200.00) and leave it on the counter with the certificate paper.

I am sharing small and easily noticed wastes – imagine what you can find if you are looking into more complicated processes.

Cursory training not good enough

Until recently many companies found the cheapest on-line two hour training  they could buy and brushed off their hands happily feeling that they had met the requirement for prevention of sexual harassment.   Well, yes they met the legal minimum bur all the research coming out lately is showing that this type of training doesn't change attitudes or behavior.

It takes a very interactive type of training with lots of examples and give and take conversationally to change minds, hearts and attitudes.  Until those change behavior will no change.

Men and women react differently to similar situations.  People from different cultures have different standards of behavior.  We need to lean about each other - not merely be told about all the lawsuits for misbehavior.

Most of us - men and women - want to do the right thing.  Some of what we do though is not perceived as right by the other person.  WHY?  Why aren't they more like me?   Answer because they were taught differently.

Let's learn from each other so that we don't inadvertently hurt or insult the other person..

and yes, there are jerks and bullies and people who just plain like to make others squirm so that they can feel more important.  We need to stop these bullies force ably.  We need to role-model appropriate behavior.  We need to stand up for those more vulnerable than we.  We need to teach young women and men that they can and should say NO loudly and when they report abuse they will be taken seriously.

This is no matter to pay lip service to.  We must really take the time to help people learn how to behave with each other.

Is Delegating Worth the Effort?

In almost all classes on management training as well as those about time management, we are taught the importance of delegating. Indeed, it’s something I harp on over and over again in my workshops, training, and MBA graduate classes.

Yet, some weeks are harder than others. It has made me think that sometimes doing it my self is faster and easier. Ever have that feeling?  I bet you have!

Let me share with you some of what I have recently had to deal with. They include work, home, and some volunteer work.

Work

My Administrative Assistant

My administrative assistant is a lovely young woman with a great personality. She is always pleasant and willing to do any assigned task. Yet, over and over again I find that she pretends to know things she doesn’t know. Too, she is not nearly as careful as I need her to be. The latest in a series of frustrations for me:

• Filing in the wrong files
• Filing not even in file folders, but loose in the drawer
• Making a list of what’s in the file drawer – which does not need to be done.
• Mixing up documents to be filed with my basket of work to do – and I think she filed some documents requiring work on my part that I may never find again.
• Leaving half finished work lying about – for me to put away.
• Not writing down – or remembering instructions about how to complete a very important document, which needed to be done perfectly – thereby ruining 40 pages of work which had to be redone – because she didn’t save the prior draft.

Who’s at fault here? Probably ME. I teach a funnel theory of management, and yet I made the assumption that she was smarter, neater, and more careful than I am finding her to be.

• I need to micro-manage more. 
• I need to be slower and provide her with much more detailed information. 
• I need to give her only one thing to do at a time, rather than a whole day’s worth of projects.
• I need to point out (gently of course) things she left lying about, and ask her to put them away before she leaves. 

Of course, all of these require me to pay attention rather than being focused exclusively on what I’m doing.

My Computer (IT) expert

We are in the process of migrating my programs and files from my old computer to a new one – and the new one is not compatible with much of what the old one is attached to. So almost daily I hear these woeful stories of how this won’t work and that won’t work and how hard it is to do this, that or the other thing.

I want to scream. “Go away.” “Just do it.” “Leave me to do the work I need to do.”

I’m also told that I need to buy a new this that or the other thing – at hundreds of dollars of expense. 

Now, being a woman, where would I rather spend my money? On purchasing computer equipment or clothing and jewelry? You guessed it.

So, is it his fault for telling me all this, or my fault? Probably ME

• I need to realize that his thinking style (he’s an IT guy) is vastly different from mine. I’m a soft-skill expert with a background in Psychology.
• I need to realize that he thinks it is helpful and useful to share these details with me, whereas they seem like minute and uninteresting pieces of information to me.
• He needs social time and recognition and these pronouncements are his way of trying to obtain both from me.

So, what do I need to do?  Remember that people are different and because of the differences in thinking styles, I, as a manager, need patience and tolerance.

Volunteer Work

OK, maybe I expect too much of others. I am doing volunteer work at a facility with Alzheimer’s patients. I have a lot of materials I use with them that are meant to be exclusively for my project with them – which is to help them watercolor (which by the way is a lovely things to do with them). Each time I go to the cupboard where my materials are kept, I find others have been there and messed things up.

I can tell in a variety of ways – things have been re-arranged. Paintbrushes have not been cleaned, nor placed in their proper receptacle. Papers have been shuffled about.

When I ask the staff, they tell me that no one has been in the cabinet so “I don’t know” must have made the mess. 

Since this is not my facility, I have little or no control about the matter. I cannot ask that the cabinet be locked because others use it for other reasons. I cannot demand that the materials be kept the way I want them, because not only am I a volunteer, but they pay for the materials.

So, I have to live with it. I have to change my expectations and not be so critical about neatness, carefulness, etc. Again, whose fault is the problem, you guessed it, probably ME.

Our expectations of how things should be done, or should look, or be kept are what frame our emotional responses to how we find things. Changing our expectations will change our reactions. So, what do I have to do?

• I need to understand that this is an open cabinet and like it or not others use it.
• I need to recognize that we are working with materials that are replaceable – these are not priceless works of art.
• I need to lighten up and go with the flow.

So often we react to things from an unreasonable set of expectations, and by revising those expectations, our reactions will become more benign.

Home

My Handyman

I am not handy. Nor am I a willing gardener. I found the perfect man to do all of these little tasks for me. He comes to my home twice a month or so, takes care of my patio, and anything I need fixing in the house. He’s wonderful and can do anything I ask of him.

So, you may ask, what’s the problem here? Do you just like to complain?

The problem is silly and simple. He uses my tools and sometimes doesn’t put them back in the proper place. When I need a screwdriver I have to search for it since it might be out on the patio, or might be in the garage on the table, but it belongs in a particular drawer in the toolbox.

So, whose problem is it? Yup, mine again!

• I need to ask him to be more careful and to replace things where they belong.
• I need to lighten up and not get frustrated over the little things.

Delegating, delegating, delegating. In this case, I can’t even do some of these things myself – so I need to learn to be grateful to those who can do what I can’t do easily.

How does this relate to those who work for you in your organization?

My Housekeeper

My housekeeper has cleaned for me for many years – possibly even over ten years. She is reliable, honest, decent, and totally trustworthy. She also over-reacts to small things. For example, if she accidentally chips or breaks something absolutely of little or no value, she apologizes as though it were a priceless piece of crystal.

But, when she cleans, she moves things. Not only does she move all the knickknacks to the back of the table or chest on which I’d neatly arranged them, she moves things from right to left when she cleans. When I go to find something, it is not in the place in which I left it for my convenience or aesthetic sense. It drives me nuts.

Sometimes I laughingly and lightly point this out to her – and she laughs in return, but never changes her behavior. So, whose problem is it? Probably ME.

• I need to tell her that this matters to me by being direct and congruent.
• I need to stop giving her mixed messages by joking and being light about it.
• I need to show her where I want things placed.
• I need to remind her when they are re-arranged.

Unfortunately, I’m rarely home when she cleans, and leaving a note around just does not convey the right attitude.

Other women with whom I speak don’t have housekeepers because of similar frustrations.  BUT, I believe in delegating. As frustrating as this is – and believe me it is – I’d rather spend the ten or fifteen minutes re-arranging things to my satisfaction that have to spend the three or more hours cleaning the house.

How do all of these apply to you as a manager?

It’s so easy to blame the other person for what we perceive as shortcomings. Yet, we as managers need to take more responsibility for:

• How we communicate what we want from our staff
• Who we hire to do a particular task and how we train them
• Learning how they learn and understand and coaching them accordingly
• How we hold people accountable, not just at the beginning, but during the life of their working for us.
• Our own over-reactions “don’t sweat the small stuff” as they say.

I conclude by reminding us all – you and me – that if you don’t delegate and you do it all yourself, you will never have the time to do the more exciting, interesting, and creative elements of your job. The more you can delegate, the freer your time to grow professionally yourself.

So, in answer to my own question: Yes, delegate, but do it wisely.

Is Delegating Worth the Effort?

In almost all classes on management training as well as those about time management, we are taught the importance of delegating. Indeed, it’s something I harp on over and over again in my workshops, training, and MBA graduate classes.

Yet, some weeks are harder than others. It has made me think that sometimes doing it my self is faster and easier. Ever have that feeling?  I bet you have!

Let me share with you some of what I have recently had to deal with. They include work, home, and some volunteer work.

Work

My Administrative Assistant

My administrative assistant is a lovely young woman with a great personality. She is always pleasant and willing to do any assigned task. Yet, over and over again I find that she pretends to know things she doesn’t know. Too, she is not nearly as careful as I need her to be. The latest in a series of frustrations for me:

• Filing in the wrong files
• Filing not even in file folders, but loose in the drawer
• Making a list of what’s in the file drawer – which does not need to be done.
• Mixing up documents to be filed with my basket of work to do – and I think she filed some documents requiring work on my part that I may never find again.
• Leaving half finished work lying about – for me to put away.
• Not writing down – or remembering instructions about how to complete a very important document, which needed to be done perfectly – thereby ruining 40 pages of work which had to be redone – because she didn’t save the prior draft.

Who’s at fault here? Probably ME. I teach a funnel theory of management, and yet I made the assumption that she was smarter, neater, and more careful than I am finding her to be.

• I need to micro-manage more. 
• I need to be slower and provide her with much more detailed information. 
• I need to give her only one thing to do at a time, rather than a whole day’s worth of projects.
• I need to point out (gently of course) things she left lying about, and ask her to put them away before she leaves. 

Of course, all of these require me to pay attention rather than being focused exclusively on what I’m doing.

My Computer (IT) expert

We are in the process of migrating my programs and files from my old computer to a new one – and the new one is not compatible with much of what the old one is attached to. So almost daily I hear these woeful stories of how this won’t work and that won’t work and how hard it is to do this, that or the other thing.

I want to scream. “Go away.” “Just do it.” “Leave me to do the work I need to do.”

I’m also told that I need to buy a new this that or the other thing – at hundreds of dollars of expense. 

Now, being a woman, where would I rather spend my money? On purchasing computer equipment or clothing and jewelry? You guessed it.

So, is it his fault for telling me all this, or my fault? Probably ME

• I need to realize that his thinking style (he’s an IT guy) is vastly different from mine. I’m a soft-skill expert with a background in Psychology.
• I need to realize that he thinks it is helpful and useful to share these details with me, whereas they seem like minute and uninteresting pieces of information to me.
• He needs social time and recognition and these pronouncements are his way of trying to obtain both from me.

So, what do I need to do?  Remember that people are different and because of the differences in thinking styles, I, as a manager, need patience and tolerance.

Volunteer Work

OK, maybe I expect too much of others. I am doing volunteer work at a facility with Alzheimer’s patients. I have a lot of materials I use with them that are meant to be exclusively for my project with them – which is to help them watercolor (which by the way is a lovely things to do with them). Each time I go to the cupboard where my materials are kept, I find others have been there and messed things up.

I can tell in a variety of ways – things have been re-arranged. Paintbrushes have not been cleaned, nor placed in their proper receptacle. Papers have been shuffled about.

When I ask the staff, they tell me that no one has been in the cabinet so “I don’t know” must have made the mess. 

Since this is not my facility, I have little or no control about the matter. I cannot ask that the cabinet be locked because others use it for other reasons. I cannot demand that the materials be kept the way I want them, because not only am I a volunteer, but they pay for the materials.

So, I have to live with it. I have to change my expectations and not be so critical about neatness, carefulness, etc. Again, whose fault is the problem, you guessed it, probably ME.

Our expectations of how things should be done, or should look, or be kept are what frame our emotional responses to how we find things. Changing our expectations will change our reactions. So, what do I have to do?

• I need to understand that this is an open cabinet and like it or not others use it.
• I need to recognize that we are working with materials that are replaceable – these are not priceless works of art.
• I need to lighten up and go with the flow.

So often we react to things from an unreasonable set of expectations, and by revising those expectations, our reactions will become more benign.

Home

My Handyman

I am not handy. Nor am I a willing gardener. I found the perfect man to do all of these little tasks for me. He comes to my home twice a month or so, takes care of my patio, and anything I need fixing in the house. He’s wonderful and can do anything I ask of him.

So, you may ask, what’s the problem here? Do you just like to complain?

The problem is silly and simple. He uses my tools and sometimes doesn’t put them back in the proper place. When I need a screwdriver I have to search for it since it might be out on the patio, or might be in the garage on the table, but it belongs in a particular drawer in the toolbox.

So, whose problem is it? Yup, mine again!

• I need to ask him to be more careful and to replace things where they belong.
• I need to lighten up and not get frustrated over the little things.

Delegating, delegating, delegating. In this case, I can’t even do some of these things myself – so I need to learn to be grateful to those who can do what I can’t do easily.

How does this relate to those who work for you in your organization?

My Housekeeper

My housekeeper has cleaned for me for many years – possibly even over ten years. She is reliable, honest, decent, and totally trustworthy. She also over-reacts to small things. For example, if she accidentally chips or breaks something absolutely of little or no value, she apologizes as though it were a priceless piece of crystal.

But, when she cleans, she moves things. Not only does she move all the knickknacks to the back of the table or chest on which I’d neatly arranged them, she moves things from right to left when she cleans. When I go to find something, it is not in the place in which I left it for my convenience or aesthetic sense. It drives me nuts.

Sometimes I laughingly and lightly point this out to her – and she laughs in return, but never changes her behavior. So, whose problem is it? Probably ME.

• I need to tell her that this matters to me by being direct and congruent.
• I need to stop giving her mixed messages by joking and being light about it.
• I need to show her where I want things placed.
• I need to remind her when they are re-arranged.

Unfortunately, I’m rarely home when she cleans, and leaving a note around just does not convey the right attitude.

Other women with whom I speak don’t have housekeepers because of similar frustrations.  BUT, I believe in delegating. As frustrating as this is – and believe me it is – I’d rather spend the ten or fifteen minutes re-arranging things to my satisfaction that have to spend the three or more hours cleaning the house.

How do all of these apply to you as a manager?

It’s so easy to blame the other person for what we perceive as shortcomings. Yet, we as managers need to take more responsibility for:

• How we communicate what we want from our staff
• Who we hire to do a particular task and how we train them
• Learning how they learn and understand and coaching them accordingly
• How we hold people accountable, not just at the beginning, but during the life of their working for us.
• Our own over-reactions “don’t sweat the small stuff” as they say.

I conclude by reminding us all – you and me – that if you don’t delegate and you do it all yourself, you will never have the time to do the more exciting, interesting, and creative elements of your job. The more you can delegate, the freer your time to grow professionally yourself.

So, in answer to my own question: Yes, delegate, but do it wisely.

Board Training Survey

Thank you so much to the almost 100 members of boards who responded to my survey last month.   We will be following up with those of you who gave us permission and shared your contact information with us.  But, for now – here’s a quick summary of the priorities you reported:

·       What are the most critical issues new board members should be taught?

o   Learning the specific by-laws and rules

o   Team work

o   Communication

o   Willingness to listen

·       What are the issues that make for a highly successful board?

o   Problem-solving ability

o   Willingness to change one’s mind based on new information

o   Ability to disagree without making it personal or taking it personally.

·       How effective was your last board meeting?

o   Moderately effective

·       How often should a board have a planning and team building retreat?

o   Once or twice a year

It’s clear from these responses – and the details you offered that the “soft skills” are critically important to the success of a board.  Does your training include communication and interpersonal relationship training?  We emphasize those elements in our board training workshops.

To All Business Owners of Any Size

It seems to me that people need to learn how to protect themselves better in the workplace (and every place else, I guess) There are some significant pieces to it:

Attorneys typically are the ones offering sexual harassment training - and they use scare tactics, are pedantic and boring and nobody really pays attention. They don't do a good job about explaining people's sensitivities and how to respect them.

Today, because everyone is trying to save money, they are apt to use a cheap on-line training program - also relatively worthless in really dealing with the issues.

The people investigating are not neutral. They are looking for evidence to support their client's case. They are not trained in conducting neutral investigations.

There are no standards, no statute of limitations, or anything else that would protect CEOs and other excutives from being condemned.

The law mandates that firms with over 50 employees conduct training. I firmly believe the time has come to train everyone that has even one employee - or one customer.

OK - so you know where I'm going with this - I'd like to offer a group training SOON to members of smaller associations - or small businesses.

May we talk about this??????

Call Center Hell

I just wasted an entire morning trying to resolve two simple problems - that should have taken about five minutes each. The first one wasn't too bad, only 20 minutes of hold, disconnect, and then finally the right person - who was a manager and really helpful. That was with Iron Mountain, the paper files storage company.

The second though made me crazed. I was repeatedly transferred, left on hold, and then the call was dropped and I had to dial again. I was transferred to six (yes 6) different agents, all of whom were "the wrong person to help me" and all I wanted was to talk with the billing department. I was on the phone with Office Depot's call center hell for over 45 minutes. Eventually I was connected to a billing clerk named Christine. I told her what I wanted. She promised to fax it to me .... and she faxed me only one small piece of the itemsized statement i requested./

Call centers need to clean up their act. Hiring cheap labor who don't liten well, only know how to read scripts, and never have enough information to really help you, costs these companies oodles of money in the long run. It costs them customers too.

Call center agents who tell you "not my department" or "I can't access that information, it requires another department" leave the caller frustrated. There needs to be cross-training and access to a wider range of computerized information.

Furthermore, if they have to transfer you - after all you've already gone through hold ad button pressing hel before getting to them - they should get you a LIVE human being with an IQ over 100, who can actually help you.

Please please please - let's hire better and train better - customers on this end are so frustrated.