Rant advisory warning: Today I am on my soapbox
I have seen Erich working diligently on the latest course, Ethical and Effective Managers. It has been interesting to watch if only because Erich working feverishly is an uncommon sight. The other day, someone called and asked him if he was interested in a job. He told me,
Although we joke about our differing work habits a lot, the truth is that whenever something really needs to be done, Erich puts his nose to the grindstone and does it. Right now, he is struggling with getting all of the management information into the course, all the stuff about having attendance policies, creating and following procedures such as a written warning for policy violations. All of this is good information and will be useful to new managers.
However, and it is a very big HOWEVER, values come first. I have been working a long time, thirty-five years to be exact, and with a whole lot of managers. I'm the type of employee you want working for you. I have a basket of degrees, a ton of experience, work my a$$ off and do top-quality work. I also have zero interest in taking your job, so if you put me in a corner and fed me terabytes, programming would come out, you would look good and life would be happy for all. So, what kind of managers have I worked for?
Plenty of (too many) people who were good at project managent, Gantt charts and Excel. They had classes on how to run meetings, including writing an agenda, taking minutes, and making sure every member of the team had a chance to speak. Almost all of the people I have worked with have demonstrated persistence, coming to work every day and often putting in long hours. What really distinguished the good managers from the bad, though, was almost never their ability to do all of the things they had learned in their MBA program. It was those last three traditional values - honesty, courage and generosity.
I worked with a very ambitious young man, let's call him, Bo, who took every project management course there was. He very much wanted to rise through the management ranks. When scheduling a meeting one day, one of the people could not make it. One of my co-workers said,
"Let's have the meeting anyway. That guy has no clue what's going on."
In truth, "that guy" was assigned to this project because he had a friend in the organization who wanted to find some work for him to do. Bo said,
"No, everyone is a member of the team here. We all have to be here. Everyone has an equal say and everyone shares in the credit."
Now, Bo had perfect charts of how projects should get done. He had written plans. He was always on time for meetings, for which he had an agenda printed ahead of time and minutes done within twenty-four hours. Great according to all of the classes on communication. HOWEVER ...
He is sitting here telling the two people who are actually going to do the work, my co-worker and I, that we need to reschedule this meeting for the convenience of someone who we all know doesn't know what is going on or have anything to contribute. Then, after we have done the work that was delayed due to 'that guy' not being available, we are all going to share equally any raises or other rewards. I don't know if Bo ever attained his goal of being a manager or not. I do know that the result of the meeting was this:
"You're right. Let's go ahead and have the meeting. I'll fill in Joe later."
Really, how hard would that have been?
This did not happen because Bo lacked both honesty and courage. He was afraid what Joe might say to his friend who had gotten him the job if his co-workers went ahead and had meetings without him. Bo was afraid what would happen if Joe did not get equal credit for the work and complained to his friend.
Erich mentions how even though there are lots of complaints about tribal workers, those so-called "ghost workers" who never show up for their job, workers who have a job title like "Assistant Co-Director of Economic Development" that can't tell you what it is they do and on and on. HOWEVER, there are tribal organizations and departments that work well, with people who come to work every day and do a good job, with pride. Part of the difference, I believe, is that managers eventually get the workers they deserve. I will bet you that Joe would be happy to have Bo as a manager. HOWEVER, if I, or my co-worker ever see a job advertised where Bo is the manager, you can bet we won't be applying to work there.
All of the classes in the world on written policies, charts, budgets, communication and management style won't make up for the fact that the good employees don't want to work for you.
I have seen Erich working diligently on the latest course, Ethical and Effective Managers. It has been interesting to watch if only because Erich working feverishly is an uncommon sight. The other day, someone called and asked him if he was interested in a job. He told me,
"The money was good so I listened to the recruiter for a while, but the more she talked about it, the more it seemed like real work, so I referred her to you."
Although we joke about our differing work habits a lot, the truth is that whenever something really needs to be done, Erich puts his nose to the grindstone and does it. Right now, he is struggling with getting all of the management information into the course, all the stuff about having attendance policies, creating and following procedures such as a written warning for policy violations. All of this is good information and will be useful to new managers.
However, and it is a very big HOWEVER, values come first. I have been working a long time, thirty-five years to be exact, and with a whole lot of managers. I'm the type of employee you want working for you. I have a basket of degrees, a ton of experience, work my a$$ off and do top-quality work. I also have zero interest in taking your job, so if you put me in a corner and fed me terabytes, programming would come out, you would look good and life would be happy for all. So, what kind of managers have I worked for?
Plenty of (too many) people who were good at project managent, Gantt charts and Excel. They had classes on how to run meetings, including writing an agenda, taking minutes, and making sure every member of the team had a chance to speak. Almost all of the people I have worked with have demonstrated persistence, coming to work every day and often putting in long hours. What really distinguished the good managers from the bad, though, was almost never their ability to do all of the things they had learned in their MBA program. It was those last three traditional values - honesty, courage and generosity.
I worked with a very ambitious young man, let's call him, Bo, who took every project management course there was. He very much wanted to rise through the management ranks. When scheduling a meeting one day, one of the people could not make it. One of my co-workers said,
"Let's have the meeting anyway. That guy has no clue what's going on."
In truth, "that guy" was assigned to this project because he had a friend in the organization who wanted to find some work for him to do. Bo said,
"No, everyone is a member of the team here. We all have to be here. Everyone has an equal say and everyone shares in the credit."
Now, Bo had perfect charts of how projects should get done. He had written plans. He was always on time for meetings, for which he had an agenda printed ahead of time and minutes done within twenty-four hours. Great according to all of the classes on communication. HOWEVER ...
He is sitting here telling the two people who are actually going to do the work, my co-worker and I, that we need to reschedule this meeting for the convenience of someone who we all know doesn't know what is going on or have anything to contribute. Then, after we have done the work that was delayed due to 'that guy' not being available, we are all going to share equally any raises or other rewards. I don't know if Bo ever attained his goal of being a manager or not. I do know that the result of the meeting was this:
- One good, hard-working employee left very angry that his time was being wasted.
- Another good, hard-working employee left with no respect Bo's capabilities as a manager.
- The completion of the work was delayed.
"You're right. Let's go ahead and have the meeting. I'll fill in Joe later."
Really, how hard would that have been?
This did not happen because Bo lacked both honesty and courage. He was afraid what Joe might say to his friend who had gotten him the job if his co-workers went ahead and had meetings without him. Bo was afraid what would happen if Joe did not get equal credit for the work and complained to his friend.
Erich mentions how even though there are lots of complaints about tribal workers, those so-called "ghost workers" who never show up for their job, workers who have a job title like "Assistant Co-Director of Economic Development" that can't tell you what it is they do and on and on. HOWEVER, there are tribal organizations and departments that work well, with people who come to work every day and do a good job, with pride. Part of the difference, I believe, is that managers eventually get the workers they deserve. I will bet you that Joe would be happy to have Bo as a manager. HOWEVER, if I, or my co-worker ever see a job advertised where Bo is the manager, you can bet we won't be applying to work there.
All of the classes in the world on written policies, charts, budgets, communication and management style won't make up for the fact that the good employees don't want to work for you.
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