The Manager’s Toolbox

In one of my earlier posts (May 23, 2007), I mentioned the idea of a manager “using” his or her employees the way a carpenter uses a hammer. Since then, the question of “How, exactly?” has come up a couple of times, and I thought I’d devote the next few posts to some practical details. Keep in mind that the management of people (human resources in the original sense) is always going to be subjective, not to mention context-specific.

That said, the first task for the line manager is always to learn as much as possible about the employees for whom he or she is responsible. Some of your people may have better attention to detail, and can be employed for those tasks requiring precision; others may be able to handle only the gross details of a project, but at an extraordinary rate of speed; still others will excel in people skills, or forward planning, or record-keeping, or any of a thousand other specialties. There’s an old saying among engineers that “No tool is so useless that you can’t find something to fix with it,” and that applies to management scientists, too. Everyone working for you has something to contribute to the task at hand; your job as the manager is to figure out what that is.

Blaming the employee because you can’t figure out how to make use of their skills (a behavior that often shows up on complaints about managers from the workforce) is like blaming a circular saw because you can’t drive nails comfortably with it. It’s possible that a given employee does not have the skills you need to complete a task (a carpenter’s file won’t help you rewire a light socket), but that means we need to consider what we can get that person to do (can we use a file to make the socket fit better in the wall? How about making a guide groove for the wires?) and how that fits into the larger picture.

Let’s take an example of a familiar business type – a retail store. Suppose I’m the manager on duty, and I have five people working for me on this shift. One needs to be on the floor, helping people find what they are looking for – I’ll need the employee with the best people skills. One needs to run the cash register – look for someone with a good eye for detail and decent math skills (to make sure the right prices are applied and the correct discounts are given).

Someone needs to work the loading dock and check in our shipments, as well as packing up things we’re sending to customers – I’ll need someone who can handle heavy lifting and does not get bored easily (try checking in a shipment for a general merchandise store with over 60,000 different items in inventory). Someone needs to unpack the incoming goods and set-up displays on the sales floor – ideally, someone with attention to detail and a good eye for color, contrast, and appeal. And finally, somebody needs to process our paperwork, pay our invoices, run our payroll, send out bills, handle our bank deposits, do our filing, and a dozen other back office functions – hopefully, somebody on the crew has some accounting background.

Generally speaking, people tend to enjoy those job tasks they excel at – and excel at the job tasks they enjoy. Just understanding your people, and knowing what kind of work each of them would be happiest doing, can go a long way toward getting the best performance from each of them. Explaining that this is why you are making those assignments (telling someone that you are putting them in charge of the books because they are the best accountant you’ve got, for example) will go even farther; everyone likes to be appreciated. Of course, some people may not agree with your assessments, or prefer some other task to the one you’ve assigned them, and it pays to accommodate those requests when doing so will not jeopardize overall performance.

Getting people to give you the best possible performance in the roles assigned to them is another story, of course – but we’ll take that one up tomorrow.