How to Delegate Responsibility

It’s a typical hazard of being a manager.  You think you’ve delegated something, and then (seemingly by stealth) the monkey jumps back onto your back.  How did that happen?  Join Jed & Bob this week when they talk about how to keep delegated tasks delegated.

Monday’s Tip: Have regular one on ones. The best preventative measure for keeping delegated tasks delegated is to have regular and ongoing dialogue about various tasks and how they are progressing.

Tuesday’s Tip: Avoid perfectionist tendencies. If you have a high need for control, or are a perfectionist, then it will be difficult for you to resist doing all the work yourself, or to redo others’ work.

Wednesday’s Tip: Be careful when offering help. You should coach, counsel, and advise.  When these activities stray towards doing part of the work for people, you need to take a step back and reassess.  Be supportive, but leave the responsibility with your direct report.

Thursday’s Tip: Make sure the delegated task or project is perfectly clear. You can save yourself a lot of work if you ensure the expectations and requirements are absolutely clear.  If they are not, you will undoubtedly end up buying part of the task back from your designate.

Friday’s Tip: Ask lots of questions. If you ask lots of questions throughout the process of the task you have delegated, you will be able to effectively monitor progress and take corrective action before the monkey lands back on your back.

 

Awash in Data

Twenty or so years ago, organizations would hire guys like us to come in and help them define metrics and measures.  Often times there were not adequate data collection and storage systems, so we ended up counting a lot of things manually, and then getting our crayons out to hand draw graphs to represent these indicators.

Skip ahead in time a couple of decades, and organizations are still hiring guys like us to help them with the measures and metrics, but now its usually because they have thousands upon thousands of data points, but no ability to turn this data into wisdom, and ultimately better business decisions.

Blame Microsoft.  They made it easy to have powerful spreadsheets and databasing capability on every desktop relatively cheaply.  Now the guy who runs the janitorial service at the office has a PC with more computing power than the Space Shuttle, and 500 indicators he’s tracking.

We also see it in any professional sport.  Did you know that in games that take place on the road, in the Central Time Zone, on odd-numbered days, in the same month as the coach’s birthday, when the starting line-up all had chicken for the dinner the previous night, the team has posted a win 58% of the time?

Now that’s valuable data.

Professional Sports organizations are very fat with cash – they can afford to waste some on useless statistics.  Your organization probably can’t.

You need to figure out what results your organization is trying to produce, and then determine the key drivers of those results.  For many organizations, the goal is to make money while minimizing various forms of risk.  What are the simple key drivers of these things?

When I worked in the Retail Food industry we were very good at making a really simple business far more complicated than it needed to be.  It seems to me there are only two drivers of the business that impacted all of the other things we were tracking:

  1. Did we have what the customer wanted on the shelf when s/he wanted it?
  2. Once that customer had everything she wanted in the cart, did we make it as easy as possible for her to part with her money?

There were literally hundreds of other things we were tracking, and some of them were actually valuable; but only these two things really mattered.  Only the two things above would impact all the important result indicators.

What are the key drivers in your business?

 

Building Key Performance Measures

Join Jed and Bob as they discuss David Parmenter’s work on building good Key Performance Indicators, and how KPIs are different from other measures that are currently in use in many organizations.

Watch the ‘Building Key Performance Measures’ Video (13 mins 10 sec):

Download the  ”Building Key Performance Measures” Cheat Sheet, Video, Audio, and Slides

Key Performance Measures

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Every business has some performance measures, but do they have KEY performance measures?  Below we talk about

  • Why all organizations should have Key Performance Measures (or KPIs)
  • The difference between Key Performance Measures (or KPIs) and simply Performance indicators, and Key Result Indicators
  • We discuss David Parmenter’s four foundation stones for implementing and using Key Performance Measures (or KPIs)
  • Parmenter’s 12 step model to developing and using Key Performance Measures (or KPIs)

Why Your Organization Needs Key Performance Measures (or KPIs)

  • You need good measures to know where you stand as an organization.
  • People need to know “their score”
  • Key Performance Measures (or KPIs) are a necessary ingredient of continually improving performance.
  • Many organizations make measurement irrelevant by getting lost in a sea of data and numbers that nobody understands, or that don’t tell a story.
  • Key Performance Measures (or KPIs) are a necessary part of your Balanced Scorecard

KRAs, PIs and KPIs

David Parmenter is one of the foremost thinkers on Key Performance Measures (or KPIs).  Here is how he defines various types of indicators:

  • Key Result Indicators: tell you how you have done in a perspective
  • Performance Indicators: tell you what to do
  • Key Performance Indicators: tell you what to do to increase performance dramatically

Seven Characteristics of True Key Performance Measures (or KPIs)

  1. They are non-financial
  2. They are measured frequently (hourly, daily)
  3. Acted on by the CEO and the Management Team
  4. There is a clear understanding of the measures by all
  5. Assigns clear accountability
  6. It has a significant impact on performance and results
  7. Positively impacts other performance indicators.

Four Foundation Stones for Implementing and Using Key Performance Measures

  1. Partner with staff, unions, key suppliers and key customers for the development of Key Performance Measures
  2. Transfer of power to the front line for the influence and monitoring of Key Performance Measures
  3. Integration of measurement, reporting, and performance improvement.
  4. Linkage of performance measure to strategy.

Twelve Step Model for Implementing and Using Key Performance Measures

  1. Establish and maintain senior Management Team commitment
  2. Establish a Project Team
  3. Establish a “just-do-it” culture and process
  4. Set up holistic KPI development strategy
  5. Market the KPI system to all employees
  6. Identify Critical Success Factors (“CSFs” or Key Result Areas)
  7. Record measures in a database
  8. Pick team level performance measures
  9. Select organizational winning KPIs
  10. Develop reporting framework
  11. Facilitate use of KPIs
  12. Refine KPIs to maintain relevance

David Parmenter describes each of these steps in much more detail in his book Key Performance Indicators:  Developing, Implementing and Using Winning KPIs (John Wiley & Sons, 2007)  OR http://davidparmenter.com/

3 Things to Remember About Key Performance Measures

  1. Don’t let your metrics take on a life of their own.  Having hundreds of measures that people don’t understand or use is a waste of time
  2. You can do this at the departmental or regional level.  If your organization is not ready to use KPIs on a widespread basis, you can do it in your area.
  3. Do not discount Key Result Indicators – you need to understand your results and what you are achieving.  Just ensure you continue to drive those results through the use of Key Performance Measures.

Watch the ‘3-Minute Crash Course’ about Key Performance Measures (CLICK THE ARROW TO START THE VIDEO):

Looking for the Full-Length Podcast/Video? …

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Key Performance Indicators

Lots of organizations out there spend an awfully lot of time measuring things.  In some cases, they are tracking the right things that help them make better decisions and improve their business.  In many other cases, they are measuring far too many things that have very little impact on the business.  Join the Wily Manager guys this week as they talk about Key Performance Indicators (with the key word being “KEY”).

Monday’s Tip: Identify the Key Performance Indicators in Your Organization. Also differentiate them from your Key Result Indicators, and your Performance Indicators.

Tuesday’s Tip: Choose KPIs that people can act on. Your Return on Capital Employed may be an important metrics, but it doesn’t inspire action.  Your KPIs should move people to action.

Wednesday’s Tip: Pick KPIs that are easy to understand. The most powerful measures are those that are crystal clear for people at all levels of the organization – not just those with accounting credentials.

Thursday’s Tip: Involve people at all levels of the organization to establish your KPIs. If you impose measures on others they will only accept them begrudgingly.  If you can involve them, they will embrace them as their own.

Friday’s Tip: Connect your KPIs to your business strategy. Parmenter uses the example of On-time departure as a KPI for the airline industry.  It is easy to understand, and very clearly connects to strategic drivers of cost, service, and brand.

 

When Your Buddy Becomes Your Boss

I spent much of my early adult years working the graveyard shift in a grocery store to work my way through University.  I’m not really sure why any thinking employer would leave four or five twenty-year-olds unattended in the middle of the night with several hundred thousand dollars worth of inventory, but they did.  It’s a good thing we didn’t sell booze.

There was a camaraderie on the Night Crew that comes when a group of like-minded individuals works closely together.  All was fine until one of the guys figured out he was in charge.  I suspect the store manager worked night crew once himself, and knew it was a debacle, and figured out how to solve the problem:  make someone accountable.

This was fine, except that because he was accountable, he, in turn, wanted all of us to be accountable.  I didn’t want to be accountable, I wanted to be at home, in my bed, asleep.  This guy took us to task on the length of our breaks, and how many bananas we consumed in the middle of the night without ringing them through the register.

In short, he did exactly what he should have, as our boss.  The problem was, this guy was our buddy a short time ago, and all of sudden he was the boss.  What happened to all those drunken stoopers where we’d backstab the management bozos?  Now he was one of those management bozos.

In some cases, when two highly-professional people decide to make it work, a new boss and his/her former peers can make it work.  Most of the time, however, you have to choose between being a buddy or being a boss.

If you are doing your job well as a manager, you’re not there to make friends.  You’re there to do your job to the best of your ability, which occasionally may mean pissing off former peers.

The bottom line is if your friendships at work are really important to you, you may want to think long and hard about how badly you want that promotion to becoming the boss.

Managing Former Peers: What Happens After Your Promotion

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Managing former peers is probably your most immediate challenge if you’ve just been promoted.  Below we suggest five key steps to managing peers.

“Congratulations… you’ve got that promotion you wanted so badly.  Now go fire your best friend.”

5 Steps to Managing Peers

  1. Decide if you actually want the job of managing peers
  2. Reach out to all stakeholders
  3. Establish one on ones with your new direct reports
  4. Strike the balance between over and under managing peers
  5. Be a professional

Decide if You Actually Want the Job of Managing Peers

Just because you are offered a promotion, doesn’t mean you necessarily have to take it.  You need to think through whether you want the added burden of managing peers.  Some things to keep in mind:

  • Your peer relationships will change whether you want them to or not.  Don’t be naïve enough to think they won’t.
  • You can’t control others’ attitudes and/ behavior.  Even if you are ready to make the new relationship work, that doesn’t mean others will be as willing.
  • If your personal relationships at work are really important to you, you may want to decline your new role of managing peers.

Reach Out to Stakeholders

For anyone in a new position of leadership, it is crucial to reach out to important stakeholders.  It is especially important when managing former peers.  You should speak with your new direct reports, your boss, and other people you interface with often.  Here are some thoughts as to what to ask them:

  • What would you focus on if you were me?
  • What can be done better?
  • What would you suggest is the top priority?

Be systematic and thorough – even when it becomes onerous and time consuming

Establish One on One Meetings With New Direct Reports

When managing peers, it is important to establish structured and regular one on one meetings with these people.  Well-executed one on one meetings will ultimately save you time, and make managing peers easier.  These meetings provide an opportunity to:

  • Set expectations
  • Reinforce and reward desired behaviors and performance
  • Communicate and clarify roles and goals
  • Update status on action plans.

Best of all, regular one on one meetings significantly reduce the number of “drive-bys” or drop-in meetings when managing peers.

Strike the Balance When Managing Peers

Do not come on too strong and micromanage your new situation.  BUT… you are no longer “one of the girls”, either.  If you experience any significant challenge to your authority, you need to deal with it directly and quickly.  Also make sure you delegate appropriate when managing peers.  If you hoard all the work yourself, you will ultimately fail.

Be Professional

Professionalism is paramount when managing peers.  In order to do so effectively, you need to detach yourself from your personality, and rather view yourself as the new manager of the group or department.  Here are some guidelines for maintaining professionalism when managing peers.

  • Stay focused on facts
  • Maintain confidences
  • Tow the company line.  You are management’s representative in your work group.  You undermine your own credibility, and are not doing your job if you don’t properly represent management views.
  • You need to refrain from company gossip and going out for cocktails with you direct reports should be done with extreme caution.
  • Don’t play favorites

3 Things to Remember About Managing Peers:

  1. Figure out if you really do want the opportunity.  Most often you do have the opportunity to say “no”.
  2. Your friendships will change.  It won’t be the same once you are the boss.
  3. Communicate several times.  Everyone in a new leadership role should look to over-communicate by a factor of ten.

Watch the ‘3-Minute Crash Course’ about Managing Former Peers (CLICK THE ARROW TO START THE VIDEO):

Looking for the Full-Length Podcast/Video? …

Get Instant Access to 200+ Cheat Sheets, Videos, and Other Immediately Usable Tools for Busy Managers – Try Out a Wily Manager Membership Today!

Managing Former Peers

Learn the five critical things that all managers of their former peers need to learn to be successful in their new leadership role.  Also figure out how to strike the balance between being an overbearing micromanager, and being a pushover when managing former peers.

Watch the ‘Managing Former Peers’ Video (13 mins 24 sec):

Download the  ”Managing Former Peers” Cheat Sheet, Video, Audio, and Slides

 

How to Manage Former Peers

The good news is you got the promotion you were looking for.  The bad news is now you have to manage your former peers – one of which was passed over for the same job you got.  It was the best of times… it was the worst of times.  Join the Wily Manager guys this week as they discuss Leading Former Peers.

Monday’s Tip: Establish one on one meetings with all new direct reports. Regularly scheduled, well-structured one on one meetings facilitates communication, and saves managers’ time.

Tuesday’s Tip: Don’t try to control anyone else’s reactions to your new relationship. Even if you’re fine with your new relationship, others may not be.  Don’t try to change their mind or control their behavior.  Simply get on with what you were hired to do.

Wednesday’s Tip: Don’t play favorites. If you have close friendships with some of your new direct reports, you have to work very hard to ensure those friends do not get any special treatment.

Thursday’s Tip: Avoid gossip and cocktails. It might have been fun before to go out after work for a beer, and beat-up on those senior management types.  Your new role as a leader makes this fraught with problems for you.

Friday’s Tip: Deal directly with challenges to authority. It is likely someone will test you to see what they can get away with.  You may want to let some things go in order to keep the peace, but any direct challenges to your authority need to dealt with quickly and decisively.

Gen X is a lot Like Jan Brady

This Generation X cohort is a real piece of work, isn’t it?  Is it possible to have a whole generation stuck in a massive inferiority complex?  It’s kind of like meeting a Canadian backpacking across Europe.  Yeah we get it – those 500 Maple Leafs you’re wearing mean you come from Canada.  The rest of us don’t really care that much, but you go ahead and dress up like a Mountie.

Gen X is not unlike when Jan Brady got completely bent out of shape because everything was “Marsha, Marsha, Marsha.”  (You have to be a Gen Xer to get that reference).  Grow up Jan, and stop being so annoying.

Actually all this generation talk is getting a bit boring.

In 1994, I suffered through a breakfast seminar where the guest speaker was telling us how this new generation of worker was completely different than anything that had every come before it.  These Generation X types were not loyal to any employer, didn’t care too much about their jobs, and were just generally hard to get along with.

Remembering back on this particular breakfast seminar now, it was particularly offensive on at least three levels:

  1. About 2500 years ago, some guy named “Socrates” made the same observation.  I’m more familiar with the published works of Socrates than I am with the guest speaker (whose name I’ve forgotten) that morning, so I’m going to assume it wasn’t an original talk.  Although the flashy Powerpoint slides were something that Socrates never pulled off.
  2. Those entering the workforce in the early 1990s had just watched their parents be laid-off en masse after a lifetime of loyalty to their companies to take on a new role as an unemployed middle-aged former corporate drone with no real marketable skills.  Add to this, the fact that Generation X – to date the most educated generation in history – walked into a job market with very few prospects, and you may begin to understand some of their crankiness.
  3. These Gen Xers did finally manage to find jobs — though not the cool, self-fulfilling ones they were promised.  Fast forward in time twenty years and these Gen Xers are now lamenting the fact that the generation that came after them has no loyalty to their organizations, and don’t care too much about their jobs.  It really does come fully circle, doesn’t it?

We need to quit trying to rationalize and explain the fact it is each generations’ express mission to drive the generation immediately preceding it crazy.  How else can you explain the music of the devil (also known as Jazz) that today’s older retirees used to make their parents foam at the mouth with anger.

Your job as a leader is to get other people to do what you want them to do, because they want to do it (with credit to Dwight Eisenhower).  Spending a whole bunch of time trying to label and define different generations won’t help you with that.

Finally, just to prove there’s no hard feelings about the crack about Canadians above, this week’s video is dedicated to those viewing from Canada:

 

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