Keep your owner’s manual
handy
hile putting
together the material for my new seminar, “Developing
Management Skills,” I was reminded that good management
skills are not something people are born with. They are skills
that must be acquired through education and experience. A good
manager is one who advocates and initiates action.
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As stated in the book The Fifth Discipline
by Peter M. Senge, “Leaders do not have the answer. But
they do instill confidence in those around them that, together,
we can learn whatever we need to learn in order to achieve the
results we truly desire.” Good leaders initiate change.
Managing others is always a challenge, but
it doesn’t need to be a difficult and frustrating
experience. A recent Wall Street Journal article talked about
developing an “Owner’s Manual” with
instructions on how to get along with the Boss.
The Owner’s Manual is a one-page
document that is a self-assessment of the Boss’s
management strengths and weaknesses and his or her likes and
dislikes.
As this articles says, cars come with
manuals… wouldn’t it be nice if bosses came
equipped with an owner’s manual that says,
“Here’s how to turn me on… Here’s how
to turn me off, and WARNING! Here’s how to get in
trouble!”
A simple technique
The creator of the Owner’s Manual
concept, psychologist Laurence J. Stybel, describes it this
way, “It is a relatively simple and inexpensive technique
to reduce the risks of failure in filling a position, while
potentially increasing the effectiveness of the hiring
process.”
In this WSJ article, the experience of Dr.
Ron Goodspeed, CEO of Southcoast Hospitals Group, was used. It
describes how he developed this manual, based on
self-assessment and input from his associates, and used it with
great success. He improved the hiring process at his
organization and the efficiency of his existing employees. His
own performance improved as well.
The first part of this process — and
the hardest — is being open and honest with yourself.
Next, and also hard, is sharing this
information with others. Document your management strengths and
write down your shortcomings, too, such as: impatient; assume
others know what I want them to do next; talk around some
issues instead of addressing them directly.
When you want to hire a manager you have
specific expectations for that person. During the interview
process you find an individual you would like to hire.
At this point, you begin to create mental
images of what you think this individual wants and needs. To
entice this individual into taking the job, you immediately
modify your behavior to fit your image of what they want.
What if, during the interview process, you
handed the prospective new hire your one-page Owner’s
Manual? How powerful would it be for this individual to know,
before accepting the job, what your management style is really
like?
How the Boss works
Dr. Goodspeed’s Owner’s Manual
helped existing employees become more efficient because they
learned that the Boss knows about his own shortcomings.
When projects were presented to him that
he did not like, he would put off a decision and time was
wasted. Now the employees ask him what he doesn’t like
about a proposal when he becomes indecisive. This forces
immediate discussion and decisions are made without wasting
valuable time.
The doctor keeps his Owner’s Manual
in a leather binder and refers to it weekly. During a meeting
with a manager that he hired last fall, the doctor says he
caught himself talking around an issue.
He said to the manager, “As
you’ll remember from the Owner’s Manual, this means
I’m having trouble understanding what you’re trying
to do. The manager immediately proposed specific
action.”
When the manager was asked what he thought
of his boss’s Owner’s Manual he said, “As a
measure of success you could say that the doctor’s work
inspired me to think and act along similar lines — a true
reflection of his leadership abilities to inspire
others.”
This manager is now working on his own
Owner’s Manual.
A manager or a leader?
For a person to grow into being a leader,
the boss must encourage that individual to think beyond
“That’s the way we’ve always done
it.”
In the drycleaning industry, there are
pieces missing at assembly at the end of every day. This is a
condition that exists in every plant. A Manager will locate the
missing piece no matter how long it takes. A Leader will find
out why pieces are missing and will fix the problem.
Example: An order of four drycleaning
pieces is short one pair of men’s pants. The Manager
looks at all the pants in the pressing department and then goes
back to the Drycleaner. The Drycleaner tells the Manager that
those pants came back from pressing and had to be spotted and
run through the drycleaning machine again.
Most owners/managers accept this as being
a part of the business that you have to learn to live with.
True Leaders do not accept it. They start asking questions,
such as:
• Why weren’t the pants ready
to be pressed when they went to pressing?
• What time did they go back to the
drycleaning department?
• Did anyone record the fact that one
piece in that order had to be re-run?
The next thing a Leader will do is discuss
the problem with other key employees to get their suggestions.
This is done by asking the right questions, such as:
• Could we put up a board where we
post that a DC piece from ticket number 123 went back to
spotting, pressing or sewing for a minor repair?
• What other information should we
post? The time?
• How much time will posting this
information take?
• How much time do we lose every
day/week looking for pieces?
When people start looking for solutions to
problems and when they start communicating the need for a
solution with others, they begin the process of becoming a
Leader.
In the game of business the more you know
the better you can play the game.
Alan Robson is a private consultant
dealing with the specialized needs of the drycleaning industry.
Contact him by telephone at (941) 408-8819 or send e-mail to
him at: alan@bizbuilderonline.com or visit the Biz Builder web site: www.bizbuilderonline.com.
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