Only a Fraction of the Job

 
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Glenda's on life support and she's not even sick.

When Tom took over the team leader's role, he noticed that Glenda was fabulous at analyzing trends and spotting how his team could exploit them. Now she does all of that for the team. Glenda was horrid at oral presentation, though, so she hasn't made a presentation of her own data in two years.

Glenda is on life support. There's no growth, no development.

She's mastered the analysis part of the work. There no opportunity for growth there unless she moves to another position. But every time she's applied for another position, she's had to make an oral presentation which has always turned out badly.

Tom's been recognized by top management because the team has performed better since he's been the team leader. That's good, but it's only part of Tom's job.

Tom is concentrating on the half of his job that involves helping the team succeed. He's not doing anything with the part about helping team members succeed. That's 50 percent of the job at best.

But he's really doing less than that. He's doing the part about "building on strength," but he's totally ignoring the part about, "making weaknesses irrelevant."

And Tom is only paying attention to helping the team succeed today. He's forgotten all about helping the team succeed tomorrow.

Tom is looking good to his bosses just now. His team looks good, but people aren't growing and shoring up their weaknesses, even for today. And he's not doing anything to help the team tackle tomorrow's challenges and succeed. Even if everything he does is right, he's only getting a quarter of the job done.

Boss's Bottom Line

Your job is simple. You must help your team and team members succeed both today and tomorrow. Nobody said it was easy.

Wally's Working Supervisor's Support Kit is a collection of information and tools to help working supervisors do a better job. It's based on what Wally's learned in over twenty years of supervisory skills training. Click here to check it out.

 

 

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Comments

  • 11/10/2011 4:56 PM Mike wrote:
    Valuable insights. I am reminded of the quote, "when you are up to your hips in alligators, it is hard to remember you wanted to empty the swamp." It is true, but too bad. Managers need focus and need to take control so developing their people gets done.
    Reply to this
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