Author: Mike Urgo
Full transparency, I was going to talk about managing stakeholders this week, but something happened, and I am pushing that off until next week (unless I get distracted again).
For those not in the DMV area, it snowed this past weekend. When it snows in the DMV, that usually means the world is ending and everything shuts down.
Like most responsible adults, I removed the snow from my driveway and the sidewalk, then thought to myself:
I wonder if the trash is going to be the same day this week?
So, I googled our trash company, clicked on their website and saw that, yes, the trash pickup was as scheduled this week. I then continued about my day thinking about how I would discuss managing different levels of stakeholders. As one does, I took a break from writing, (and thinking) to scroll Facebook.
As I was scrolling, I saw a post in our community group, and someone asked:
Does anyone know if the trash is being picked up on time this week?
The individual answer for each leader’s situation and culture will vary, but this framework should apply to all teams. As a leader I started developing rules and guidelines for my team and myself. For myself, when I first started coding in a new system, I really wanted to learn it at its foundation. So, I would give myself thirty minutes to an hour to figure something out if I was stumped. Then, if stumped, I would go do my due diligence to find a solution on the customer support portal or forums.
If that didn’t work, then I would go to my supervisor. The next part is very important. When I talk to my supervisor, I would state what I was working on, the problem I had encountered, and the steps I took to find a solution on my own. This not only showed my supervisor the work I had done, but it saved them the time of repeating the same troubleshooting steps I had already done.
As I grew to manage my own teams over time, I passed along this practice to them. It’s important for your people to know that they can always come to you, but it’s even more important to help them work to solve problems independently first.
Teaching someone to fish, as the saying goes.
Truthfully, there’s nothing inherently wrong about this, and this newsletter isn’t meant to bash those who choose to ask questions in community pages rather than look up the answer themselves.
However, it did make me think about something a good supervisor and friend of mine once discussed. We were talking about managing employees and how it’s easy to say things like:
My door is always open!
Don’t hesitate to ask for help!
Let me know if you need anything!
Does that really empower and help employees grow? What about employees like me, who would suffer trying to solve a problem for hours, because they didn’t want to seem incompetent?
We both came to a very similar conclusion that I think we as leaders can work to implement into our teams. As leaders we need to create an environment of independence and critical thinking while also being efficient. It is not efficient to be a constant sounding board for your team. Most of your day becomes occupied by answering question after question and you won’t have time to focus on your own deliverables. At the same time, employees shouldn’t be left to suffer in silence either.
I also take it one step further, based on something I learned from a former CIO and VP. When bringing things to the attention of leaders, I try, and I teach my people to bring things in a very succinct manner, boiled down to four things:
- What is the problem?
- What is the proposed solution, or steps taken thus far?
- What is the potential impact of the problem and solution(s)?
- What are the time constraints?
If teams start to break down their emails to leaders and stakeholders that reflect that framework, while committing to work on solutions instead just waiving a red flag, productivity, job satisfaction and collaboration will increase.
To lay it out further, here’s a tangible example:
Email 1:
Afternoon Director of Enterprise Applications,
The integration between the ERP and the data warehouse failed and we need to escalate.
Thanks,
~Employee who did the bare minimum
Email 2:
Afternoon Director of Enterprise Applications,
I want to make sure you are looped into an ongoing situation.
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- The integration between the ERP and the data warehouse failed
- I have logged a priority one ticket to the development team and have tagged all relevant stakeholders. We have also contacted the vendor in case additional support is needed.
- At this time, there is no impact, but we need to have it restored before the overnight payroll processes, or payroll could be impacted.
- I have asked the team to update the ticket by 2pm with a status and will schedule a call for a review with relevant parties.
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Please let me know if there’s any additional action you would like me to take at this time.
~Employee who did their due diligence and communicates well
We have come a long way from deciphering whether my trash pick-up will be on time this week or not. I think the sentiment is clear. We as leaders, as well as our employees, are faced with a similar decision through our day when it comes to the level of effort we are applying. It’s also OK to be available to help your people and other teams, but not to the extent where you become a crutch.
Do you need help implementing this type of model? Want to know more about how this type of thinking can have a positive impact on your organization?
Schedule a call to see how I can help you or perhaps you are an organization that is a good fit for my next full-time career move.
The ability to take the time to understand your organization, your people, your processes, and translate to technological solutions is what makes Intellectual Nebula so effective!
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