This post is based on an article I wrote for the 2022 Q4 edition of the Institute of Water magazine
Who makes your business really perform, day in and day out, just simply making the right things happen at the right time in the right way? Your Rising Stars? Or perhaps your graduate trainees? Or maybe your management high-fliers that you’ve identified and are nurturing. IMHO, No.
Wrote Bob Windmill
Good, but not the answer
Rising star, graduate trainee and high-flyer programmes are a Good Thing, and bring real business benefits, and there is a real case for getting your succession planning and mangers right. However, leaders and managers are only as good as the service that gets delivered.
Great service delivery starts with individuals doing what was promised, day in, day out, rarely failing and owning the problem when things go wrong. Yet business seldom recognise, never mind reward, these unsung stalwarts.
If you don’t believe me, try this question: who gets the most plaudits, the individual who is great at putting out the fires, or the individual that quietly stops them breaking out in the first place? Sadly, the former. I know because I was one of the latter.
The success trap
Many leadership and management courses happily cover the idea of managing individuals according to where they are in the career.
Typically, this will be giving lots of instructions, to new starters, giving them more scope as they gain experience, allowing them increasingly work under their own supervision before they become the kind of steady Eddy and Edwina that can be relied on to consistently do a good job and rise the challenges of the unexpected.
What they don’t do, and I see this so often, is to remind would-be managers that allowing someone to work unsupervised is not the same as ignoring them. OK, it can be a fine line but, as an opinion, if you are fortunate enough to have such a person working for you, a regular check-in, just for a chat you understand, is essential.
Why?
The question of why comes down to another question: “Why do people do good work?”. The answer, in my experience, is “because they want to”. From this it follows that the manager’s job is to create the environment in which people are happy and want to do good work.
A bit of management theory can help here, Hertzberg’s two factor theory identifies the factors that lead to job satisfaction (motivators) and dissatisfaction (hygiene factors). A key motivator is recognition, and a key hygiene factor is their relationship with their supervisor.
At it’s simplest, it is hard show appreciation and recognition, and build a good relationship with someone if you do not speak and met with them regularly. If this happens to an individual they, being human, will start to ask questions like” why am I bothering?”. This is a Bad Thing. Don’t end up there.
Some managers get this. In a previous role as a departmental head, I commented to my director that one individual seemed to get a lot of attention while constantly appearing to work in fire-fighting mode. His reply was simple: “Bob, they may get the attention, but who did we move sideways and who did we promote?”.
A final question
Do you get it and, more importantly, do your actions show your steady Eddies and Edwinas that you get it?
Finally
I hope that you have enjoyed reading this post. If you have thoughts on what I have written so far please leave a comment.
Also if you have an idea for another business topic let me know and I’ll be delighted to find a space for it.
Thanks again
Bob windmill
