What Would An Effective Manager Do? Part 2
January 12th, 2007No, I’m not sharing the answer yet. 
BUT! Mike and I were so pleased by the responses, we’re going to deliver the answer in a podcast, coming out in the next week or two. And, we’re going to go over all the blog comments, and address the points everyone has made.
We’re shooting it tonight, so if you have comments you want addressed, now’s the time. We’ll do our best to include the late ones.
[This post does not endorse nor suggest the continuation of on-the-fly, spur-of-the-moment casts. There’s still plenty of work to be done that can’t be shoehorned into a busy schedule. Thanks - H]
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January 12th, 2007 at 5:41 pm
One clarification, in case my post gets mentioned. In the previous thread I wrote:
“I would isolate the big five and then see where I can delegate ….
….. I come to grips with the fact I can’t handle another effectively - so I search for the right person for the job.”
I Should have proof read my work because it admittedly sounded goofy. I mean that I cannot just “hold another big ball by trying harder”. My max to be effective is 5 (or less for that matter). I know this because to be effective requires focus. If there really are a total of 6 big balls, then something has to shifted (not dropped!).
January 12th, 2007 at 9:46 pm
Aaah! How can I possibly sleep without knowing this answer? I’m about to take the 6th ball and throw it at my boss!
January 12th, 2007 at 11:31 pm
Tom-
Aim well!
(Because if you’re going to get in trouble for throwing a ball, you might as well have the joy of hitting the mark! (pun intended).
Mark
January 13th, 2007 at 12:38 am
I’m sure I will miss getting this read before the cast is shot, but I’ll say it here anyway.
An effective manager will have already worked on the relationship with the boss enough so that the boss is aware of his/her workload. Effective managers with good bosses will be able to quickly fit the new “big ball” in to the priority list with the others and will be able to establish revised expectations based on the new workload. Delegation, rescheduling and creativity will all play roles here.
Effective managers with poor bosses are kind of screwed anyway, so my recommendation is the following (it has worked for me and I haven’t gotten fired with it, at least not yet):
“Okay, I’ll take on that new project and I won’t point out that putting my time on this project will take away my time from one of the other ‘priority 1′ projects you ahve me on because you don’t want to hear that. All I’m going to say is that you know, I know and whoever gave you this project that you are now delegating to me knows that the more projects I divide myself and my team between, the lower the quality of the results will be. I’m assuming that by assigning this project without taking anything else off the active list you have made that assesment and are ready to accept poor quality as a consequence. So I guess it’s time for me to go get started.”
I’ve never been any worse off for taking this approach and it has been known to shock a bad manager or two in to doing the right thing and taking another “big ball” out of my rotation. Your mileage may vary. Have that one page resume updated, just in case.
January 13th, 2007 at 12:56 am
After a bit more reflection, I suppose I would like to rephrase my answer slightly and say that a truly effective manager would never be in the position of being handed another big ball without the boss already understanding the impacts of that on cost, quality, schedule and priority.
There is an old saying that goes “One should always dig your well before you are thirsty.” In this case, your relationships and your past performance are your well and that new big ball is a couple of days in the desert.
Of course, if you are the new guy (or your boss is) this is harder. Outside of the response I gave above I’m at something of a loss as to what the right answer is.
Paul
January 13th, 2007 at 1:14 am
Not sure if it’s too late, but it’s still “tonight” so here goes.
My first inkling was to consider whether or not the ball should really be in my hands. Maybe it’s just me, but we’re so lean and have undergone so many organizational changes that people often lose sight of who is responsible for what. So, the first thing I consider is whether the ball should be passed to one of my neighbors. Or have we gotten too compartmental in our job descriptions?
If it’s mine, or if I’m qualified and everyone else is saying “not it”, then absolutely take it. It’s big and shiny, so it’s presumably near the top of the priority list. Figure out what’s gotta give. Delegate more if possible, but ultimately somewhere down the line, one or more of those balls need to get dropped, passed to another group, or just set down until they become higher priority than the rest of the balls in play.
So, I figure out what we should put on the side, project how long it will sit there and warn those up the ladder about any screaming that may come. If we’ve developed good relationships with our customers (mine are all internal), they’ll understand if their lower priorities sit in order to accomodate more important things, as long as their high priorities get their due attention when they come up.
Maybe I missed the point, but from my perspective, organizations today are intentionally lean enough to force the dropping or indefinitely delaying of the lowest priorities. If your organization can handle everything that comes your way, then you’re overstaffed. When the balls that get dropped are the big ones, then it’s time to add members to your team.
Tim