Anyone who has known me for a while will have heard me going on about how Management is the only profession that everyone in the world automatically assumes that anyone can do. That’s not strictly true, by the way; nearly every literate person also assumes that he or she could write a book (and secretly harbors the belief that their book would be an instant best-seller). But it’s still a rant you will hear me go off on at the drop of a hat, simply because unlike a doctor, a lawyer, an accountant, a carpenter, a teacher, a baker, a scientist, a peace officer, or even a garbage collector, everyone seems to assume that if a given employee manages to survive two years on the job without doing anything incompetent enough to be fired, that employee is automatically qualified to supervise other personnel.
Obviously, this drives me slightly nuts. As a management professional, I’ve taken three years of Master’s classes, compiled fifteen years of corporate experience (and another six of consulting experience), read, studied and reflected on the profession of leading and managing people, only to be confronted time and again with people who place no value on the profession I practice. Some companies will go so far as to make managerial appointments purely on the basis of price, promoting the individual who will require the smallest salary in their new position, and some others will sink to the level of offering no salary increase whatsoever (expecting their new “managers” to accept the higher workload purely for the joy of their new “power”).
If the only consequence of these displays of idiocy were that management personnel had something to complain about, and Scott Adams got a never-ending supply of material for the Dilbert comic strip and his other works, I’d just put up with it, the way lawyers put up with lawyer jokes and doctors put up with snide remarks about their handwriting. But the truth is, the mirror Mr. Adams holds up to the working world is sometimes chillingly accurate (I’ve actually received memos that unintentionally quoted Dilbert strips!) and these lapses (and the idiots who make them) are often responsible for companies failing, investors going broke, and thousands of worthwhile people losing their jobs.
And the worst part is, it doesn’t have to be this way…
Management is a science; leading people is an art. Neither one is something you can just pick up out of the atmosphere and instantly achieve professional competence in. Yet by the same token, the theories and rules of management science are just as simple and logical and necessary as those of any other science. Once you understand the Hierarchy of Needs, for example, you will never fail to grasp why a company picnic is a useless gesture when the workforce is underpaid or fearful of losing their jobs. Once you grasp the concept of “managing up” you will never fail to consider how you can get what your unit needs from higher management, nor why it is critical for you to do so.
Management remains one of the most lightly regarded of all of the professions, not because people cannot understand it, or even because they do not understand it, but rather because it is the only truly universal job function. No one cares if a lawyer can’t practice medicine, or if an accountant has no idea of how to bake a cake, yet both of these professionals will, in all probability, be required to manage other people at some point in their career. To do this effectively, they need to apply the same care, determination and professionalism to learning the manager’s skills that they would apply to learning any other aspect of their professions. Because the simple truth is, sooner or later, management WILL become part of their professions.
And probably yours, too…
Showing posts with label managing up. Show all posts
Showing posts with label managing up. Show all posts
Friday, July 6, 2007
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
The Ray Lesson
The Ray Lesson
Some years ago, when I was working in the drugstore, I happened across an example of a “managing up” situation so extreme as to constitute a parody of the way these situations are supposed to work. Yet I feel the solution I worked out (and the lesson I learned in doing so) are worth repeating, if only as a humorous way of making my point…
When I first reported to my new store, all of the people already on the staff made a point of telling me to look out for the store’s Operations Manager, who I’ll call Ray. The Operations Manager is the second-in-command of a drugstore; he or she handles functions like inventory control, forward planning, ordering and so on, reporting to the General Manager and in turn supervising the Assistant Manager (or Floor Manager). Quite often the Operations Manager will function like the Executive Officer of a military unit or the COO of a company, and in many cases this individual will be being groomed for a General Manager’s position and a store of his/her own.
Ray was another matter. The story went that some years earlier, the company had accused Ray of embezzlement, but botched the investigation and were unable to prove he had done anything wrong. Ray had then sued the company and won, resulting in a large judgment against his employer and a work situation in which the company was unable to discipline him for any infraction short of a (provable!) major felony for fear of additional legal action. All of my new co-workers went out of their way to tell me how Ray never did any work, made the previous Assistant Managers do all of his work for him, and so on.
I have always made a point of making my own decisions about people; I also try to be aware of the fact that not everything the veteran employees tell the “new guy” is going to be completely true. Consequently, I reserved judgment about Ray until I got to know him for myself. My first impression of Ray was that he seemed like a nice enough person, but somehow unfulfilled, or at least frustrated. More than you would expect from a guy who knows he will never be promoted again unless he leaves the company, that is.
In talking with Ray, it rapidly came up in conversation that his greatest ambition was to attend law school and become an attorney, but he was unable to generate a sufficiently high score on the LSAT exam to get into any law program. Even those schools requiring only basic literacy and a check for the tuition were unwilling to take a chance on him. Ray was obviously quite intelligent, but the ability to get a high score on standardized tests actually has little to do with how intelligent you are; it’s more a function of how good you are at taking standardized tests.
As it happened, I had used The Princeton Review preparation guide when I took the GMAT (for business school), and I thought their method might work for Ray. Unlike a lot of the other test preparation services, Princeton Review does not just provide practice questions and drills on how to do them; instead, they teach you how the test questions are put together, and how to take them apart. Or, as they call it, how to “crack the system.”
I won’t specify Ray’s cultural background, except to say that I had grown up around a lot of his people, and I knew that as a rule they took a positive glee in cracking any system they encountered. By this, I mean no criticism of Ray or his people; it’s just one of their traditional values, no better or worse than anyone else’s. But I was pretty sure that Ray would take to the Princeton Review method like the proverbial duck to water, and suggested that he try it.
The results were, to say the least, dramatic. Ray bought the LSAT review book, read through it carefully, and then saw his score on the practice test rise by something like 60% in a week. He went out and signed up for the Princeton Review course as well, and watched his score continue to rise. When he took the LSAT the next time it was available, his score went from off the scale on the low end to absolutely stellar. He applied to all of the Law programs in the Los Angeles area, and was eventually accepted everywhere except UCLA.
Even more dramatic, however, was the effect all of this had on my working conditions. From the first day I told Ray about the Princeton Review, he became convinced that I was the greatest guy in the world, or at least, the greatest one in our company’s uniform. Not only did he never ask me to do any of his work, he started ordering other people to do MY work, so we could go sit in the office and talk about admissions strategies. For the rest of my time in that unit, managing my nominal boss (managing up) was as easy as asking for what I wanted.
The lesson I took away from all of this, the Ray Lesson, as I call it, is that everybody wants something, including your immediate boss. If you can find a way to get it for him…
Some years ago, when I was working in the drugstore, I happened across an example of a “managing up” situation so extreme as to constitute a parody of the way these situations are supposed to work. Yet I feel the solution I worked out (and the lesson I learned in doing so) are worth repeating, if only as a humorous way of making my point…
When I first reported to my new store, all of the people already on the staff made a point of telling me to look out for the store’s Operations Manager, who I’ll call Ray. The Operations Manager is the second-in-command of a drugstore; he or she handles functions like inventory control, forward planning, ordering and so on, reporting to the General Manager and in turn supervising the Assistant Manager (or Floor Manager). Quite often the Operations Manager will function like the Executive Officer of a military unit or the COO of a company, and in many cases this individual will be being groomed for a General Manager’s position and a store of his/her own.
Ray was another matter. The story went that some years earlier, the company had accused Ray of embezzlement, but botched the investigation and were unable to prove he had done anything wrong. Ray had then sued the company and won, resulting in a large judgment against his employer and a work situation in which the company was unable to discipline him for any infraction short of a (provable!) major felony for fear of additional legal action. All of my new co-workers went out of their way to tell me how Ray never did any work, made the previous Assistant Managers do all of his work for him, and so on.
I have always made a point of making my own decisions about people; I also try to be aware of the fact that not everything the veteran employees tell the “new guy” is going to be completely true. Consequently, I reserved judgment about Ray until I got to know him for myself. My first impression of Ray was that he seemed like a nice enough person, but somehow unfulfilled, or at least frustrated. More than you would expect from a guy who knows he will never be promoted again unless he leaves the company, that is.
In talking with Ray, it rapidly came up in conversation that his greatest ambition was to attend law school and become an attorney, but he was unable to generate a sufficiently high score on the LSAT exam to get into any law program. Even those schools requiring only basic literacy and a check for the tuition were unwilling to take a chance on him. Ray was obviously quite intelligent, but the ability to get a high score on standardized tests actually has little to do with how intelligent you are; it’s more a function of how good you are at taking standardized tests.
As it happened, I had used The Princeton Review preparation guide when I took the GMAT (for business school), and I thought their method might work for Ray. Unlike a lot of the other test preparation services, Princeton Review does not just provide practice questions and drills on how to do them; instead, they teach you how the test questions are put together, and how to take them apart. Or, as they call it, how to “crack the system.”
I won’t specify Ray’s cultural background, except to say that I had grown up around a lot of his people, and I knew that as a rule they took a positive glee in cracking any system they encountered. By this, I mean no criticism of Ray or his people; it’s just one of their traditional values, no better or worse than anyone else’s. But I was pretty sure that Ray would take to the Princeton Review method like the proverbial duck to water, and suggested that he try it.
The results were, to say the least, dramatic. Ray bought the LSAT review book, read through it carefully, and then saw his score on the practice test rise by something like 60% in a week. He went out and signed up for the Princeton Review course as well, and watched his score continue to rise. When he took the LSAT the next time it was available, his score went from off the scale on the low end to absolutely stellar. He applied to all of the Law programs in the Los Angeles area, and was eventually accepted everywhere except UCLA.
Even more dramatic, however, was the effect all of this had on my working conditions. From the first day I told Ray about the Princeton Review, he became convinced that I was the greatest guy in the world, or at least, the greatest one in our company’s uniform. Not only did he never ask me to do any of his work, he started ordering other people to do MY work, so we could go sit in the office and talk about admissions strategies. For the rest of my time in that unit, managing my nominal boss (managing up) was as easy as asking for what I wanted.
The lesson I took away from all of this, the Ray Lesson, as I call it, is that everybody wants something, including your immediate boss. If you can find a way to get it for him…
Monday, May 28, 2007
Managing Up
Managing Up
What do they mean by “managing up?” I hear some of you asking. By now I imagine that the reader has sorted out the concepts of management and leadership, and has grasped the idea that it isn’t enough to figure out the best use of your people and then issue orders; one must also convince the employees to do what you want them to do. But what about those people who are not required to take your orders, even in the most nominal sense? How is it possible to manage those above you in the hierarchy?
First of all, let’s go back to those definitions. Management is the science of getting necessary work done using other people. The key word here is “necessary.” It would always be nice to convince your boss to make someone else do your work, and give you more time to read Dear Abby (or whatever you read during the day), but it isn’t really necessary – until the work you are being assigned is beyond the resources you have available. For example, if you have a project that will require 400 person-hours to complete, and a crew of four (plus yourself), you will need two 40-hour weeks to complete it. If the project is due sooner than that, you will have to get additional person-hours from somewhere, either by drawing additional workers from some other part of the organization or by authorizing the necessary amount of overtime.
Unfortunately, either of these options will probably require you to get permission from your boss. If your department (or workgroup, or division, etc.) has no additional personnel to draw on, you may need to get your boss to arrange for support from another unit, and if your department has no overtime budget, you may need to get your boss to obtain funding (or authorization) from higher management. In either case, your boss should have the ability to draw the resources from elsewhere in the organization. Making use of your superiors’ resources and/or abilities in order to accomplish necessary tasks is the classic definition of managing up.
A much more difficult problem occurs when, having determined what we need the next level of management to do, we try to get them to do it. How does one “lead” someone at a higher level of the organization – someone who, in fact, is supposed to be leading you? Assuming that you have not been blessed with either an unusually competent superior (who will support you out of trust, loyalty, and your long history of being right all the time) or an extraordinary gift for leadership (which will convince your boss that you HAVE a long history of being right all the time, even when you don’t), you are going to be left with the unenviable task of convincing someone of a higher rank that they are best served by doing what you want them to do.
Keep that in mind as you frame your approach. Your failure, or that of your unit, will not serve your superior’s best interests, while your stunning success will. Ordering mandatory overtime will lower morale and damage your unit’s long-term success, while bringing in extra people to help out or offering generous overtime pay will raise morale and contribute to your long-term success – and when you succeed, the manager responsible for you succeeds as well.
Of course, the ideal solution would be to develop a strategy where by providing you the resources you need, your superior is able to achieve his or her own goals, and thus both of you benefit. If you can arrange all of your attempts to manage up in such a fashion, you may even be able to get your boss to do what you want him or her to do even when you don’t have a resource problem to solve…
But that’s a story for another day.
What do they mean by “managing up?” I hear some of you asking. By now I imagine that the reader has sorted out the concepts of management and leadership, and has grasped the idea that it isn’t enough to figure out the best use of your people and then issue orders; one must also convince the employees to do what you want them to do. But what about those people who are not required to take your orders, even in the most nominal sense? How is it possible to manage those above you in the hierarchy?
First of all, let’s go back to those definitions. Management is the science of getting necessary work done using other people. The key word here is “necessary.” It would always be nice to convince your boss to make someone else do your work, and give you more time to read Dear Abby (or whatever you read during the day), but it isn’t really necessary – until the work you are being assigned is beyond the resources you have available. For example, if you have a project that will require 400 person-hours to complete, and a crew of four (plus yourself), you will need two 40-hour weeks to complete it. If the project is due sooner than that, you will have to get additional person-hours from somewhere, either by drawing additional workers from some other part of the organization or by authorizing the necessary amount of overtime.
Unfortunately, either of these options will probably require you to get permission from your boss. If your department (or workgroup, or division, etc.) has no additional personnel to draw on, you may need to get your boss to arrange for support from another unit, and if your department has no overtime budget, you may need to get your boss to obtain funding (or authorization) from higher management. In either case, your boss should have the ability to draw the resources from elsewhere in the organization. Making use of your superiors’ resources and/or abilities in order to accomplish necessary tasks is the classic definition of managing up.
A much more difficult problem occurs when, having determined what we need the next level of management to do, we try to get them to do it. How does one “lead” someone at a higher level of the organization – someone who, in fact, is supposed to be leading you? Assuming that you have not been blessed with either an unusually competent superior (who will support you out of trust, loyalty, and your long history of being right all the time) or an extraordinary gift for leadership (which will convince your boss that you HAVE a long history of being right all the time, even when you don’t), you are going to be left with the unenviable task of convincing someone of a higher rank that they are best served by doing what you want them to do.
Keep that in mind as you frame your approach. Your failure, or that of your unit, will not serve your superior’s best interests, while your stunning success will. Ordering mandatory overtime will lower morale and damage your unit’s long-term success, while bringing in extra people to help out or offering generous overtime pay will raise morale and contribute to your long-term success – and when you succeed, the manager responsible for you succeeds as well.
Of course, the ideal solution would be to develop a strategy where by providing you the resources you need, your superior is able to achieve his or her own goals, and thus both of you benefit. If you can arrange all of your attempts to manage up in such a fashion, you may even be able to get your boss to do what you want him or her to do even when you don’t have a resource problem to solve…
But that’s a story for another day.
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