Lesson Four: Take a Hike

A desk is a dangerous place from which to view the world.
—John le Carré

Management by walking around, they used to call it.  The One-Minute Manager celebrated it.  It's the simplest and hardest activity of any supervisor.

Getting off the chair, out from behind the desk, and out into the area of your personal responsibility is also the most essential part of a supervisor's job.  After all, your primary job is not answering emails, writing reports, analyzing data, or keeping your boss happy.  Your primary job is helping your employees do their jobs.  If those other activities directly support your primary job, then find a way to fit them in when you can take some minutes away from that primary job.  Otherwise, don't do them.

Here is a lovely, succinct summary.  Go out there, don't rush, wander, make eye contact, smile, greet by name, ask questions you don't know the answers to, let your employees educate you, show honest respect for their expertise, practice appropriate humility, listen without simply waiting for your chance to talk, invite jokes on yourself and laugh at them, remember that every one of these people knows something you don't know and is probably as smart as you are, remember that every one of these people knows his job far better than you do, and remember that you are always on stage and are being judged by every instant of your behavior.  If you do this right, you will leave the shop floor or its equivalent feeling humble, proud, exhilarated, energized, and full of useful ideas.  You will be respected and liked by your employees rather than tolerated.  They will tell you things.  They will get you out of trouble before you even know you're getting into it.  And you will all produce better widgets on time.

Lesson Three: Supervision By Objective

 Lewis Carroll once wrote, "If you don't know where you're going, any road will get you there."

This can be fun for a tourist, but fatal for a business.  In fact, it's probably guaranteed to be fatal for a business.  After all, a tourist trip, however laissez-faire, really does have a goal of some kind; possibly several goals (eat great food cheap, learn Lao, get laid by a cute French girl, see what's over there, find a clean bed for the night, Discover Myself, etc.).  So does a business - and no, "Staying in business" is NOT a proper goal.  Sorry.  Only clearly articulated, measurable achievements that everyone will know when you get there and they might ALSO keep you in business are goals.


Sadly, management by objectives fell out of favor some years ago.  It had become reduced to a performance assessment tool for employees, meaning that eventually it deteriorated to a list of numbers on a paper that could be rolled up and used to swat the employee from time to time.  While there is nothing wrong with assigning employees measurable productivity goals in some areas (produce 10,000 widgets per work day with 1% or less quality failure, for example), employees' goals sometimes did not include things that were more difficult to quantify, such as getting along with colleagues, coming up with new ideas, or practicing contagious enthusiasm.  From those perceived shortcomings it was just a short fall into 'how the heck do they dare objectify me that way, I am a unique human being with unique skills and knowledge,' and subsequent sheepish obscurity.

 Nevertheless, dragged out of the trash bin, dusted off, set back on its feet and fed a nourishing breakfast, management by objectives can be extremely useful to any organization that wants to succeed.

Cassandra once worked in a large division of a huge company.  This division produced and sold a certain category of widgets.  Every month, the sales department would meet with the production department.  At these meetings - Cassandra is not making this up - the sales department would say, "We need XP million widgets next month."  The production department would say, "We can produce XA million widgets next month."  (XA being fewer, of course, than XP.)

Then - and remember that Cassandra is not making this up - the meeting would be over.  The sales people would go back to their desks and the production people would go back to their production line.  All month, customers would call to ask where the heck the widgets they needed were, and the sales people would explain that they were doing their best to get the production people to produce them.  Then they would call for emergency production lots, which would - of course - interrupt the orderly work flow and make other productions lots late.  Next month, there would be another meeting.

Eventually, the Great Mother Company sold the unprofitable and customer-toxic division.  New management reduced the product range, sent customers whose widgets the division had never made very well shopping elsewhere, made the production process more efficient, and suddenly could deliver the number of widgets the customers wanted, when the customers wanted them.  The old division began to turn a modest profit for the first time since Franklin Roosevelt was a household name.

This turnaround was not magic.  It was management by objectives.  In fact, in this case it was management by objective:  one objective.  That entire objective was, "Ship good, competitively priced widgets on time."

In order to reach that objective, sales and production held a meeting.  In that meeting they actually talked to each other.  They brainstormed (another '60's term - sorry) ideas that would allow them to reach that goal.  First, of course, they had to all agree on what they meant by the terms "good" "competitively priced" and "on time."  Then everything that impeded that objective was either fixed or jettisoned.  Everything that made the widgets cost too much was either fixed or jettisoned.  If they couldn't make a certain style of widget competitively, they sent the customer to a competitor.  Everything that ruined widgets, or made bad widgets, was fixed.  And every day a computer tracked every production lot of widgets so that the sales department could not try to sell widgets that could not be made on time.  The same computer tracked the needs of the customers, so that production knew when they should finish and ship what kinds of widgets; the same computer had learned the production process, so it couldn't expect the widgets to be produced and shipped faster than actually possible.  There were no more emergencies, so production was steady and predictable.  The phone hardly ever rang in the sales department, except to place new orders for delivery dates that could be met.  There was peace in widget land.

Ship good parts on time.  It ain't rocket science.  And what business can't define its most basic and critical goals in the same terms; in fact, in one single sentence?  A factory, a restaurant, a visa office, a lawyer, they all can define their primary objective as delivering a quality product when it's wanted.

Define the objective.  You only need one of them.  Then remove from the process everything that impedes that objective, that no on will be arrested for not doing.

Result, success.  Really.  You won't be able to help yourself.

Well, fine, you say.  But you're going on and on about management, while you already told us that management and supervision are two different things.  So what's the supervision angle on this sermon?  Are you ever going to get around to something I care about?

Care about this:  supervision by objective.

If your organization has only one objective, it is pathetically easy for both you and your employees to know what you all should be doing, and do it.  Is what you and they are doing at every moment helping to get good widgets out the door on time?  Is it interfering with that objective?  Does it have nothing to do with that objective, but is only an add-on that somebody once thought was a good idea, but isn't?

If any action isn't working toward that objective, either fix it or remove it from the process.  Period.

No, you're not.  You're interfering with the objective and making everybody crazy in the process.  Stop that right now.

And for the rest of us, happy widget-making.

Lesson Two: Motivation - It's Not What We Wish It Were

http://www.despair.com/

A new employee walks into the workplace for the first time.  He might be thinking, “I hope I can sulk, balk, complain, never take a risk, backbite, brown-nose, do as little as possible and still get paid.”

Or he might be thinking, “I hope I do well.  I hope they like me and will respect me.  I hope I’ll learn a lot.  I hope I’ll feel satisfied, and be productive.  I hope that what I do will matter.”

If you believe the first set of thoughts, shame on you and you should never be allowed to supervise a well-behaved Dachshund, never mind a human employee.  If you believe the second, we can move a step forward.

Under these conscious thoughts of your new employee, there will be some unconscious thoughts as well.  What do you suppose these might include?
Maybe ...

1.  Tell me when payday is, and all the days I will have off.

2.  Give me a nice desk and a comfortable chair.  And a window.

3.  Show me the cafeteria with its award-winning decor and award-winning menu.

4.  Give me the promotion schedule, so I'll know when to expect a raise.

5.  Show me the company newsletter, and give me an internal email address so that I can receive regular missives, updates and exhortations from management.

6.  Remember my birthday.

So this is how to motivate my employees? Just give them stuff?  Piece of cake.

... or maybe not.  Do these things and you can be pretty sure that your employee will not be demotivated by what some call 'hygiene factors,' but not necessarily that he will be motivated to any reliable degree for any reasonable length of time.  Like the classic old New Yorker cartoon in which a woman tells her husband, "Saying you don't hate me is not the same as saying that you love me."

Sorry about the cake.


 The difference between 'motivating' and 'not demotivating' has been known for many years - although, sadly, by very few actual supervisors.  The 'secret' of motivation was first explained in 1968 by Frederick Herzberg in his wonderful article for the Harvard Business Review, "One More Time, How do You Motivate Employees?"  It has never been explained better than Herzberg's Schnauzer analogy:  I want the dog to move, I kick the dog, he moves.  If I want him to move again, I have to kick him again.  And yet, motivation is supposed to be a little like a conscience - an engine that runs itself.  If I have to do something before the dog moves, it's me who is motivated, not the dog.  So under what circumstances will the dog want to move?

A properly motivated Schauzer can't be kept from moving (Cassandra has tried.  It can't be done.)   Just like a properly motivated employee can't be kept from working - not by ugly offices, by junky food, by low pay, not by anything.

Herzberg's article, with its update, should be required reading for all first-time supervisors before they even sit down behind their new desks.  It should be required reading annually thereafter.  It is not long, and it is invaluable.

Please go read it.  Then come back here.

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Ready?  Now let's try another list of your new employee's possible thoughts.  Some of these involve powerful motivators.  Others look as if they do, but actually do not.  Consider...

1.     Set me up to win.  Help me understand what I’m doing and why it matters.  See that I get all the training I need, so that I won’t make mistakes.   Give me parameters within which I can work confidently.  Encourage me to ask questions without mocking me or growing impatient.

2.   Impress me.  Let me know that you are a strong, confident leader who will help and protect me.  Be the one I will want to emulate, not the one I will want to avoid.

3.    Give me some autonomy.  Trust me with opportunity.

4.    Praise me.  Encourage me by using my strengths, not harping on my weaknesses.  Tell me every time I’ve done well; I never get tired of hearing it.

5.    Tell me immediately if I make a mistake.  Then show your confidence in me by letting me fix my error, or by making me a full member of the group that will fix it.  (A possibly apocryphal tale involves a young employee whose mistake cost the company $100,000.  When he asked his boss, 'You're going to fire me now, right?' the boss responded, 'Fire you?  Not a chance.  I just spent $100,000 training you!')

6.    Show loyalty down the chain of command.  Show your commitment to me - not just to YOUR boss.  Let me know for certain that you have my back.

7.    Don’t play favorites.  Discipline my coworker who is out of line, even if she is senior.  Hold everyone accountable to a single standard.

8.   Don't pass it on.  Even though your first boss treated you like crap, or your current boss treats you like crap, don't take it out on me.

Feeling slightly convinced but not yet committed? Here is another useful viewpoint.

 And here is still more to consider:

Motivation is not all-or-nothing.  Take Marilyn, who works as a kind of auditor.  She finds significant professional and personal meaning in helping units that have strayed from the regulations or that aren’t working efficiently get back on track to produce a faster, more accurate product that they can take pride in, and do take pride in by the time Marilyn is finished helping them.  Marilyn loves her work, gets up early and stays up late on her own time to do her work, talks about her work, and feels enormous pride in her work.  She gets notes and emails from employees she has audited sometimes years before, thanking her for her help and the permanent changes she made in their working lives.  She keeps those messages; they are precious to her.

On the other hand, the office where Marilyn sits when she’s not out auditing runs like a dormitory of nine-year-old schoolgirls with all the concomitant gossip, hair-pulling, shifting alliances, whisper campaigns, character assassination and tattling.  If you ask Marilyn what she thinks of her boss, she will tell you quite cheerfully that, if The Ferret’s brain were on fire, she wouldn’t piss in his ear to help put it out.  She didn’t start out feeling that way; but Marilyn has friends in this office; she knows what The Ferret says about her, never to her face.  Yet if he believes her work is not impeccable, he had never told her why he believes this.  She tried approaching him twice to ask what she was doing wrong, and got no clear answer upon which she could act to change any of her work practices.  Reluctantly - because she is not an egotistical person - Marilyn has concluded that he somehow dislikes her personally, for a reason he will not discuss with her, but he does murmur to her co-workers who are in the ‘in’ crowd, and to her potential team leaders.

So Marilyn - like many, many employees, is both motivated and not motivated.  She does the minimum required in the office, and saves her energy, expertise and creativity for her clients.  She will someday walk away from this job with a sense of accomplishment tempered by the bitterness of unfairness and unprofessionalism.  Will the company have gotten its money’s worth from her?  Sure, as far as it knows.  Could it have gotten more?  Much, much more.  This is an extremely common phenomenon.  Organizations suffer for it, without even knowing their loss.

Motivation.  A supervisor can't create it, exactly, but he or she can destroy it.

Will there be a test later?  You bet there will.  It will be called doing your job.

Lesson One: A Supervisor is Not a Manager is Not a Supervisor

Manager:  A person who is in charge of a certain group of tasks, or a certain subset of a company or other organization.

Supervisor:  A person who monitors and regulates employees in the performance of assigned or delegated tasks.

A manager might have direct responsibilities for, for example, huge amounts of money or buildings and/or other assets, yet supervise no one.  His work is his own.

A supervisor might or might not have direct responsibilities for money or buildings or other assets, but his work is not his own.  He gets work done through other people.

Of course, this isn't always black and white.  A manager might also supervise a staff; a supervisor might manage a budget or a hiring process.  But this is not necessarily the case and the two terms should not be confused.  Nor should the two individuals who perform this work be confused with one other.  The jobs require very different skills and priorities, and god help the organization that doesn't get this, because for all the cash and property and airplanes and furniture and tech goodies that an organization owns, its most expensive asset is its employees.  Always was, still is.  Even now.


A manager might never receive a letter like the one above.  A bad supervisor assuredly will.  And such a letter can hurt the organization far more - and far more chronically - than most decisions made by mere managers.


Good supervision is a skill, a royal pain in the ass, a constant headache, and a source of enormous satisfaction, pride and gratitude.  It has not the most direct but certainly the most lasting effect on the organization's effectiveness and even its existence.

The Enron and Arthur Andersen failures were due primarily the shameless activities of a gang of runaway brumby managers, but if you suspect that these idiots might not have been able to spread irresponsibility and misery up and down the corporate structure, across several states, down Wall Street and through the pocketbooks and bank accounts of thousands of investors and employees had they been properly supervised, you're onto something.  Hold that thought.


Good supervision is critical.  Good management?  Yeah, whatever.

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In any kind of business - shop, bank, factory, office, farm - the biggest step any employee will ever make is the one in which he moves from doing the work himself to getting the work done through other people.

Yes, that's right.  On the way from the depths of the mail room to Bill Gates, the first, biggest, hardest step is the first time a person supervises the work of another person.  And that first step on the long climb from mail to Bill is the one step that trips up the most people. So it is a big deal.  A very, very big deal.

Because suddenly you don't have one boss to satisfy:  you have two or twelve or five hundred bosses to satisfy.  And if you don't understand that, god help you.

How are you prepared for this sudden, complex responsibility over your former peers?  Your own boss tells you something like, "Good job.  You're now the supervisor.  You need to go buy a better tie."

Most never get over that.  Most never GET it.  Nevertheless, most who were productive, effective mail deliverers do continue to crawl - not stride - up that staircase dragging some kind of success - however they define it - along behind them, but also dragging stress, uncertainty, frustration, misunderstanding and misery, too, for the rest of their careers.


Many of them do have careers that, from a distance, one could envy.  But too many (ONE is too many) of those careers were built on the mistreatment, resentment and unhappiness of others for whom there was never any accounting demanded or given.  And most of all those careers could have been superior in every way had they been built on a better foundation.


If only these struggling, stressed, intentionally or unintentionally abusive supervisors had known this:  supervision is not an art.  It is a skill.  It is not luck, instinct, insight, abstract concepts, psychology, sociology, or philosophy; it is action and implementation.  It is not a secret, not magic, not the innate or inborn gift of a fortunate, talented few.  Anyone can learn it.

At the end of a long, seemingly successful career that involves supervising other people, a person can look back at one of two things:


- Personal achievement despite other people.


- Personal achievement through helping other people attain personal achievement.

And yes, the difference is significant.

As the wonderful cartoonist Hugh MacLeod puts it:  

Introduction, Part Four: What Everybody Knows That's Wrong

"Supervisor" and "Manager" are a ten cent word and a ten dollar word, both meaning the same thing.

"Time Management" is just getting your damned work done on time for once, and stop it with the overtime, will you?

Employees want to get more, but deliver less.  All of them.  All the time.

Nobody notices what the supervisor does, except to complain to higher management if he tries to impose high production standards.

The supervisor's job is to do his own work in his own office.  Preferably with the door closed so he can concentrate.

A supervisor shouldn't ever do his subordinates' work; it demeans him if he can't do it as fast and as well as they do it, and besides, that is their job.

Delegation is a fancy word for telling people what to do.  Which they ought to already know.

Long, droning meetings are stupid wastes of time, but we have to have them because higher management says so.

Employees' greatest motivators are more money and more time off.

If they got this far, they should know what to do and how to do it.  If they don't do it, they need to be criticized, disciplined, or fired.

If an employee makes a mistake, it's his fault and he should (pay, be disciplined, be bawled out, be embarrassed in public, be blamed for other problems as well, be trashed to higher management behind his back, be fired) for it.

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Okay, you say.  Okay, already.  I've got it.  So when do the introductions stop and the actual lessons finally start?

Next week.  And thank you for your patience.


photo with thanks from master-art-gallery.blogspot.com