CHAPTER 1
Getting Started
I was hired for my first management position, overseeing aconference center in the mountains of Southern California.About two days after starting the job, after I had settled intomy office and gotten the lay of the land, I closed my office doorand sat down at my desk as a startling revelation came over me:I was in charge. The buck stopped with me. I had the final say.There was no one to go to when the stuff hit the fan. It was allon my shoulders.
I made it through my first weeksand months as the new managerand facility administrator. I hadmy share of successes and failures.I wish I had had someone to comealongside me in that moment ofpanic and assure me everythingwould work out all right. The hopein writing this book is to provideyou – the new manager – with theadvice that I wish I had receivedduring that first week on the job.
As a new manager, you are faced with the prospects ofestablishing a position of authority, developing creditability,mastering technical skills, and earning the respect of theemployees who will be reporting to you. And, you haveapproximately one week to accomplish all this.
Before you get started, we have one strong caution: do nottry to be a friend to the employees. They have friends; they wantyou to be their leader. The buck stops with you. If you have apanic attack, have it out of sight of the employees. Do not tellthe employees your troubles; as far as they are concerned youhave no troubles. If you need to talk with someone, talk witha peer, or better yet, a spouse or a close friend. If you have anunresolved personal issues, see a counselor and get them fixed.Do not share your personal issues with the employees!
If you do not have high moral standards, develop them. Asyou rise toward the top of the organization, more and more ofyour behavior will become public. Leaders are often toppled by asecret vice. If a behavior cannot stand the light of day, do not doit. Using recreational drugs, imbibing too much alcohol, or havingaffairs with fellow employees can never be considered acceptablebehavior. Whether man or woman, you are a leader of truth andsoberness. Plus, integrity and honesty will forever prosper.
Devalue personal standards and you will fail; there isno going back. White-collar criminals in prison are ofteninterviewed about their misdeeds. They start out by saying "Iam an honest person; I do not know how I got here." We do,if you break one legal or moral rule you will break another.However, it may appear that the organization is rewardingyou for cutting corners and breaking a few rules, and theysing praises of your exceptional performance. But as soon astrouble hits, when questionable practices are exposed and theinvestigations begin, they will cut you off and even testifyagainst you to save themselves. There is an old saying; "If theywill cheat with you, they will cheat on you." Or put a differentway, "Never risk yourself morally or ethically for the team."
As you practice good leadership, you may discover thatyour organization's ethics do not line up with your standard.You have to make a choice, doyou stay or go? Do not deludeyourself into thinking that youcan change the organization bysetting the good example. Theorganization will more thanlikely change you into its likenessrather than the other way around.To maintain personal values youwill have to move on. Thesooner you move, the sooner lifewill be back on track and yourown Code of Conduct reestablished.
Enough philosophizing, let's get started and work throughthe first week:
As a new manager, two tasks need to be placed on the firstweek's calendar for execution: The first is to evaluate and createa clean and organized work environment. The second task isto get to know your employees.
Step 1: Building a clean andorganized work environment
Applying the 5S Principles
In the wild, the alpha male of the pack must assert and maintainhis dominance. He marks his territory and shows the rest ofthe pack that he is in charge. He sets the tone for the rest ofthe pack. As a new manager, you must establish your territoryby creating clean and organized workspaces for the employees.Accomplish this task using the 5S principles shown below.The term "5S" derives from the Japanese words for the fivepractices leading to a clean and manageable work area.
This author once observed a new department managerthat came in the weekend before he was due to start work andspent hours cleaning his new office, establishing his territoryand setting the tone for the start of his tenure. Then upon thearrival of the employees on Monday he provided the simpledescription of creating a 5S work environment using the newlycleaned office as an example.
You as the new manager have to establish your territory andset a 5S example for the employees. The next step is to give theemployees the chance to own this new approach to organizingtheir workspaces. Each step, when followed, produces a newpride in the work place. Once 5S is implemented and sustained,the employees find their daily tasks easier and they work moreefficient. The clutter is gone and all the tools and supplies arereadily accessible.
Sorting – Keep what is needed
Decide what is needed in the workspace to accomplish thedaily tasks.
Definition: To separate the necessary from the unnecessaryitems.
• Store often-used items in the work area.
• Move infrequently used items away from the workarea and dispose of the remainder unused materials orsupplies.
• Discuss removal of items with all employees to ensurethat you and they see the value in the discardingprocess.
Benefits: Creates a safer work area. Gains space. It becomeseasier for you to visualize the workflow and for employees tofind often-used tools and supplies.
Straightening – Arrange necessary items
Arrange what is needed to accomplish the daily tasks.
Definition: To arrange all necessary items.
• Create a designated place for everything and puteverything in its place.
• Arrange items so they are easily seen and accessible.
• Label the locations with shelf or cabinet tags ornameplates.
• Use a pegboard for hanging small hand tools such asscissors, rulers, pliers, screwdrivers, etc. and paint anoutline of the tool under each peg on the board.
• Place resupplied stock into the designated location.
• Create green, yellow, and red tags for each storagelocation.
[] Green – existing supply of stock is adequate for thenear future.
[] Yellow – stock is getting low and time to reorder.
[] Red – out of stock and current tasks cannot becompleted.
Benefits: Saves time by reducing effort to find frequentlyused and needed items. A quick visual survey of the work areawill indicate what supplies need to be reordered. Missing toolswill easily be identified upon a quick look at the pegboard andthe empty spaces.
Shining – Clean the workplace
Keep everything clean.
Definition: To clean everything and find ways to keep itclean. Cleaning is an important task to be accomplished everyday.
• A clean workplace is a precursor to building a qualityproduct and process.
Dust, dirt, and waste materials cause productcontamination, potential health hazards, and willslow productivity.
• A clean workplace helps to quickly identify abnormalconditions.
• A clean environment carries over into the quality of thework produced.
Benefits: Employee stress is reduced. Group morale andproductivity improves.
Standardizing – Create consistency
Create a consistent approach for carrying out tasks.
Definition: Maintain the workplace activity at a level thatuncovers problems and makes them obvious to all employees.This leads to continuous improvement of the work environmentthrough the process of ongoing assessment and correctiveaction.
• Sustain the steps of sorting, straightening, and shiningactivities every day.
• Create and use visual controls which may consist ofsignboards, painted lines, pegboards, labeling, colorcoding strategies to maintain the established order.
Benefits: Keep the work area neat enough for visualidentifiers to be effective in uncovering problems. Adopt asystem that enables all employees in the work area to identifyproblems when they occur and propose solutions.
Sustaining – Maintaining the 5S approachto management of the work area
Create a disciplined and committed group of employees forthe 5S process. This is the essential first step toward becominga manager.
Definition: To maintain discipline and the need to practice"sustaining" until it becomes a way of life
• Develop schedules and checklists that documentprocedures and workplace behavior. Some identify thechecklists as Standard Operating Procedures or SOPs.
• Follow the schedules and checklists. Revise schedulesand checklists as needed.
• Inspect the department area to ensure that the 5S isbeing maintained by the employees. The employees onlyrespect what you inspect. Take a moment to plan for thestart of the next week. Have each member of the teamcontribute to cleaning the common area first and thenindividual areas or workstations.
Benefits: Effort has been invested, the employees haveworked hard, and now it is time to make sure the effort ismaintained and the work environment improvements willcontinue.
Summarizing 5S Principles
About 30 minutes before the end of the day, walk the area,find something wrong, and tell the team to correct it. Justbefore quitting time, gather employees together and quicklysummarize what the expectations are for the next day. As timegoes on it will be more difficult for you to find somethingwrong, out of place or soiled. At some point, you will not findanything wrong then you say, "Good job." You will hear highfives as you leave; do not smile but keep walking.
When you get home laugh and enjoy the sweet feeling ofa successful day and the implementation of a painless, positivesignificant strategic change to the work area. The changes willproduce the benefits of creating a safe and clean area for theemployees.
Benefits: Keep the 5S program vital in your work area.It creates a cleaner environment and a safer workplace. Itcontributes positively to how you and the employees will feelabout the product being produced, about themselves, and theorganization. You and the employees will take pride in thetasks-at-hand and their workplace, producing improved jobsatisfaction while quality becomes the center point.
The neighboring managers will be stopping by to inspectthe improvements and the resulting increases in operatingefficiencies. Soon they will be asking you for advice. Do notbe surprised – you and the work group are getting noticed andsetting the standard! This quite an accomplishment for beingon the job for only one week!
Step 2: Knowing the employees
An important, immediate task during this first week is to get toknow each employee. You will be introduced to a number ofpeople, some so high up in the organization that they will barelyremember you. With each introduction, use the name threetimes. When you get a moment, write down identifiers andimpressions of each person you meet. The key is to rememberall of the names!
It is time to implement the "getting to know you" program.Here you build trust and mutual respect with your employees.The best approach is to "shadow" each employee. A goodstarting point is to obtain job descriptions and job titles foreach employee. These may already be on file in departmentadministrative files. If not, check with HR and obtain copies.The point is to be able compare the employees' responses toyour questions with the tasks defined for them in the jobdescriptions. Do not be surprised if current job descriptionsare not available. Creating job descriptions will be a taskyou likely will have to put on the calendar. Eventually it isimportant to determine the degree to which your employees'daily assignments fit their defined tasks. If there is a mismatchyou will have to work to bring it all into alignment – anotherfuture task.
Shadowing
Shadowing requires that you spend time with each employee.Here you observe the employee's workday without judging orcorrecting. Observe thesimplicity and complexity oftheir daily tasks. Take notes.And be an attentive listener,it is their time to talk. Startat the top; shadow the directreports first. Be friendly butnot too friendly. Encouragethem to talk. You will betold of the problemsencountered; absolutely donot promise to fix anything, just tell them that you will lookinto it. When finished shadowing, you will be able to put theircomments, problems and observations into perspective.
When all employees have been shadowed, take time toorganize your notes and create summaries. During the course ofthe conversations, private and unsolicited personal informationmay be shared with you. Confidences must be maintained.Later on when you are making decisions and actively managingto solve the identified problems keep in mind the level of trustyou fostered. Some employees' problems cannot be solved,some will require HR intervention, and some issues will testand push your management skills to the limit. The criticalpoint of this shadowing exercise is that you are taking the timeto visit all employees at their workstations, observed their dailyroutines, listen and hear the stories of their successes, issues,and problems.
Questioning while shadowing
Now, let us return momentarily to the concept of "shadowing."There are questions to ask employees and things to quietlyobserve as you shadow them.
The following list of questions is provided for you as ashadowing guide. Some questions may not be appropriate foryour group. Other questions can be held for future meetings.You will probably want to add a few of your own. This list isjust a starting point:
How long have you worked in this department and for thecompany?
How were you selected for your current position?
How are various tasks and responsibilities assigned to you?
How do you use the available tools and resources to performdaily tasks?
How do you collaborate with others in and outside of thedepartment in accomplishing the required work?
How are the products produced by you and the otheremployees received by the customer?
How is the quality the group's work measured? Does themeasurement scale seem appropriate? Are the measurementsof quality publically displayed?
How have you been trained to perform the tasks requiredof you? Was the training adequate?
How much pressure do you feel to perform the required tasks?
How much flexibility is given to you in executing the tasks?
How often during a day do you face a change in task orperformance requirements?
Are those changes part of a normal routine?
Are the changes appropriate?
What do you see as the department and the organization'sgreatest strengths and weaknesses?
What are you actively involved in to improve the productivityand quality of the work performed?
What is the one thing about the assigned job that you likethe most? What are you most proud of?
What is the one thing that you dislike the most? What causesthe most frustration?
If you could change anything about the job or workenvironment what would it be?
Look through the list above and select a few questionsthat will help you to understand the tasks the employees areperforming and their value to the organization. Put yourselected questions in order from the simple to the complex.
When you have finished shadowing the employees assembleall of the notes. You are ready to begin the analysis of theiranswers with their job descriptions From this analysis you areprepared to appreciate the complexities of employees' work andyour responsibilities as their manager.
