Dear Joan:
I just met this morning with the
administrative assistants of our department and was
surprised to find out that they are getting “bumped” off
of their manager’s calendars. I explained to them that
they are just as important as any other meeting and
should stand their ground to get face-time with their
boss.
Can you please get the word out that
managers need to make time to have a weekly, biweekly or
monthly exchange with the person that manages their
business schedule/life? The OP (office professional) is
most often the glue that holds the team together and the
first impression to outside vendors and contractors. If
managers don’t take time to provide feedback and
direction, then they shouldn’t lower their performance
review rating because the OP is not capable of reading
minds to perform up to the level of their expectation.
Communication is a two-way street no matter what role
you play within the company.
Thanks for spreading the word!
Answer:
Your letter is timely, since I’ve been
bumping into the same situation lately. There is a
common theme: the manager/executive is double booked,
swamped with emails, and is faulted for not being
accessible and having slow response times. So what does
she or he do? She or he stops meeting with the
administrative assistant and cancels meetings with their
team.
This short-sighted solution to “save
time” only makes matters worse. Without an assistant’s
screening, peers insert meetings electronically into the
leader’s calendar. Interruptions increase because staff
doesn’t have the opportunity to vet problems in a staff
meeting, or discuss them in a one-on-one session.
Details get missed because no one is anticipating what
is coming around the corner next week. And those emails
just keep piling up. The manager can’t find enough hours
in the day to stamp out all the fires that spring up.
Some people reading your letter will say,
“You’ve got to be kidding! They HAVE assistants and they
aren’t USING them?” In most cases I’ve described, the
problem isn’t that they aren’t using their assistants -
they don’t have them in the first place. Cost cutting
has gone too far. Before the recession it was common to
see three or more executives sharing one administrative
assistant. Now, it’s common to find one for an entire
team of people, or none at all.
In the case where there is one assistant
for, say, a team of eight, individuals tend to do the
work themselves because they don’t want to overburden
the already crazy-busy administrative assistant. Or,
sometimes the senior-most person takes up so much of her
time, everyone else backs off.
With so many people working remotely, an
administrative assistant is a must. S/he is indeed the
“glue” that holds all the spinning parts together; a
central clearing house and communications hub and
coordinator.
I have seen some best practices for
leveraging administrative professionals. Here are a few:
* Calendars. Have a short, weekly huddle,
either in person or on the phone. Go over the calendar
for the week and discuss the details: What prework must
be done? Who should be notified? Who do you need to talk
to in advance of a meeting? The assistant should be
working at least two to three weeks ahead of you,
anticipating what arrangements/actions need to happen.
* Follow-ups. Following up is one of the
toughest things to keep track of in a fast-paced
environment. An assistant is a huge help here. Rely on
your assistant to keep an electronic pending file, so
she or he can notify you with enough lead time to get
something done, call someone, or prompt you to check to
make sure something is completed. To make this work, you
have to have frequent touch points - verbal, text, email
- so she or he can keep the pending file up to date.
Most leaders, who try to do it all themselves, end up
dropping balls as they run from meeting to meeting.
* Scheduling. Don’t do your own
scheduling. A good assistant is “command central” when
it comes to managing your time. Meetings can be
coordinated with other critical events happening on the
same day, as well as travel time, lunch plans, building
in time for project work, etc. If you do schedule
something yourself, let the person know it is pending
until you can check to see if your assistant already
booked that time.
* Communication. If your assistant knows
what you are working on, why it’s important, who you are
working with, and how it all fits together, she or he
can be your right arm. When someone calls, she or he has
some knowledge to guide them (and possibly removing the
need for you to call back). She or he can decide what is
critical and what can wait. She or he will provide
insights to situations you haven’t thought of and help
you solve some problems. She or he may even be able to
sort through your email, putting it in electronic
folders, or at the very least scanning it to spot urgent
issues, or responses she or he can do for you
* Delegate. A good assistant should make
sure you are spending your time on the right things. If
you are making your own copies, coordinating your own
travel itineraries, doing your own routine research, you
are taking value-added time away from the things you
should be doing. For example, asking an assistant to do
some online searching for information can save hours. An
assistant with good writing skills can draft an email
for you - it’s much faster for you to edit than to
create from scratch.
If you aren’t maximizing your assistant,
it’s time to have a planning meeting with him or her to
decide how to change your behavior. If you have an
assistant who isn’t performing up to standards, consider
finding one who can. Once you have a professional by
your side, you’ll wonder how you ever lived without
them.
Email your question to Joan at
info@joanlloyd.com
Managers can be “too nice”
June 10, 2013
“He’s a nice guy and ironically, that is his biggest
flaw,” a manager told me recently. She described a
senior manager, who was extremely good at the technical
aspects of his job, but who avoided conflict.
“We’re at
our wits end,” another manager from a different
organization confided. “We’ve gone in to see our
director separately and alone, to tell her that one of
our peer supervisors is really causing problems. She
just seems to defend him and never appears to be doing
anything about it. We are now starting to fear increased
turnover and frankly, we are sick of picking up his
slack.”
In my experience, the “too nice” managers
greatly outnumber the “too tough” managers in
organizations. And the damage they cause is
unintentional but deadly, just the same. Ironically, the
very reactions they wish to avoid - angry, de-motivated,
hurt employees - they end up causing anyway.
So, how do you change a boss who is too
nice for his or her own good? First, the person has to
realize that his or her behavior is causing the very
grief he or she wants to avoid.
For instance, you could say, “Pat, I know
you value harmony and teamwork in the workplace, and I
know you would want to know if you were doing something
that was eroding that. Some of our best employees feel
that you are not treating them fairly. They are becoming
de-motivated, angry and resentful because Tom is allowed
to take advantage of the system and it is affecting
their productivity. When they have come to you about
this in the past, nothing has been done, and they are
looking to you as the leader to deal with this
situation.”
Let’s assume that Pat realizes something
must be done but doesn’t have an idea how to begin. Pat
is worried that the situation will escalate and Tom will
either be more difficult to manage, or he’ll stomp out
the door. If you are Pat’s coach, you can suggest these
steps:
Meet with Tom to clearly state what is
expected. No beating around the bush - just a
straightforward conversation about his duties and
responsibilities as well as any problems he may have
meeting those expectations. Nice managers are easy to
manipulate. If he blames others for his problems, nudge
him back on track with, “What can you do, to make sure
you do get what you need? You are still accountable for
your own results, regardless of what others do.”
Set up a progress update with Tom at
regular intervals, say, once a week. During those
sessions (which could be as short as fifteen minutes),
Tom should report on his activities. This may include
keeping notes, tracking actions or showing samples of
his work. The manager should not play mommy or daddy. In
other words, under no circumstances should the manager
“chase” a poor performer. Tom must take the
responsibility to come to these meetings prepared and
report to the manager. If he doesn’t show up or doesn’t
report as expected, the pressure should be increased -
tighter timelines, more frequent meetings, and firmer
conversations.
If Tom doesn’t improve and complaints
continue, it’s time to talk consequences. This is the
fairest, “nicest” thing you can do for someone. It
sounds counterintuitive, doesn’t it? Think about it: Is
it kinder to tell Tom the consequences of his continued
behavior - so he can turn things around before it’s too
late - or just sneak up on him and fire him (or worse,
demote him)?
“Nice” managers often tell everyone but
the person who needs to know. Sometimes problem
employees suffer career stagnation, loss of credibility,
become the office joke, or lose their jobs. Is this
nice?
The right thing to do is to tell people
the truth and put their fate in their own hands. Another
plus is that people who knew what the consequences were
before they got fired rarely sue. Surprised people sue.
If the manager can’t bring herself to
deal with a serious employee problem, she has a
performance problem herself and needs to change or step
down. The collateral damage to good employees is
significant. They lose their drive and motivation and
who can blame them? “Why should I work hard,” they
grumble, “when he gets away with murder?” The best
employees leave in frustration and the mediocre
employees hang around, because they’ve found a safe
haven. That’s the kiss of death for productivity and the
finger of blame points straight to the top.
Four ways
to get knocked out of the career race
May
23, 2013
Upward
advancement in a competitive company can feel like a
race with bumper cars at the fair. Every “player” is
careening around the track, ricocheting and banging into
one another as they race to the goal. The winner is
generally the one who can swerve to avoid all the bumps
and smash-ups with the other competitors.
The
winner at work is also the one who generally can
navigate through stressful situations and potential
conflicts to emerge the winner. The most aggressive and
self-centered usually end up revving their wheels in so
many conflicts, they can’t seem to make much career
headway, even if they have a flashy education and big IQ
horsepower.
Success at work takes more than ambition and brains. The
higher one climbs, the more persuasion, compromise and
tact play a role. It takes the ability to influence
others. You can call it developing your “Brand,” or just
plain developing a “good reputation.” The outcome is the
same: if people want to follow you and work with you,
it’s an indicator you can move up the leader ladder.
I’ve
been in the room countless times when an executive team
will be debating about who is fit to fill an executive
vacancy. When it comes down to who will get the job,
discussions move beyond skills and experience to
interpersonal and personal characteristics. After all,
they have to not only be smart and experienced, they
have to be able to get things done with fellow
executives and through those who report to them.
If you
were a fly on the wall, here are some reputations that
can cause your career wheels to spin:
* They
don’t fly cover for their team (or conversely, they are
overprotective and see their staff through rose-colored
glasses).
The
best leaders know when to be the buffer - even the
protector - of their teams. They defend their results
and stick up for them when they are wrongfully under
fire. But they have no illusions - if one of their
employees is not performing the way he or she should be,
they don’t make excuses for the person. They aren’t
blindly loyal. They know how to balance the needs of the
business, the team and the individual.
* They
don’t collaborate well with peers.
They
act as if their function is the only car in the race and
if they dent and smash other cars along the way, so be
it. Over time they lose influence - even if they are
brilliant - because colleagues don’t trust that their
motives are for the good of the business. Their
self-centered agenda or the trail of damaged personal
relationships create too much wreckage in the road to
advancement.
* They
don’t create followership.
Their
eyes have been on the prize and they have forgotten they
have to cultivate a motivated, committed workforce
behind them. They have “managed up” very well - keeping
those above them informed, making stellar presentations,
having strategic ideas. But when the surveys go out and
the employees weigh in, there seems to be some frame
damage under that shiny paint job.
Some
of the good, talented employees may have left, or are
toiling away without much visibility. Good employees
have transferred out of their department. Complaints
have surfaced in Human Resources. Morale is low and
dissatisfaction is high. The would-be executive has been
busy building his own career on the backs of the people
doing their best to keep the department running. Or,
conversely, they have been micromanaging every last
detail, so that their results position them for personal
success.
* They
have some personal characteristics that raise doubts.
Perhaps they talk more than they listen - interrupting,
lecturing, or just needing to think out loud. If they
can’t solicit ideas and opinions from others, their
careers could take a detour. Or, perhaps they act like
the smartest person in the room. Their brilliance can
carry them far, but if they think they are too smart to
ask for directions, they can end up getting pushed off
the career track and never understand how they lost
their way
Email
your question to Joan at
info@joanlloyd.com
and visit
www.JoanLloyd.com to search an archive of more than
1500 of Joan’s articles. Contact Joan Lloyd & Associates
(414) 354-9500.
