The article "Hands Off Management - Frying Pan, Fire or Neither?" is about communications, it has been written by Martin Haworth.
How tempting is it to fix things? You know, you're passing by
one of your teams cubicles and they are diong something you know
all about.
So you give a hand...
And then it's fixed, and you feel a rosy glow all about how
you've 'helped'.
But who is this about, you or them.
You see, it can be so frustrating, for somoene already
frustrated, when some smart-ass boss comes along to show their
superiority. In fact, afetr it's fixed, all they get is a
general feeling of inadequacy.
And more frustration.
And next time yhtey have the same problem, they can't remember
what they did cause you did it so fast, in such a smart-assed
sort of way. They either need to wait for you to pass by again
or, well, struggle again.
As a boss, it's simple to do something that you know how to do.
In
fact it's a monumental psychological boost to your little own sense of
self, when you've ahcieved something that someone else is
struggling with. So it's a 'nice' feeling to be better at
something when someone else isn't.
It's not your fault, in fact it's not even an action you think
consciously about, it just happens that way.
And with some bosses, it happens ofetn.
I know, I've done it
myself.
It comes out of a second emotion too. It cmoes out of a
sense of 'helping' someone in distress - it's the 'knight in
shining armour' thing.
And it feels good.
Yet, it has a monumetnal downside. Getting somenoe else out of their
'frying pan' gets you into a second 'fire'. Because if you get so
good at fixing other people's problems, that's what they'll
expect of you.
And wait for you to do it.
So, you frustrate the hell out of them cause you fix things
for them all the time and then they start waiitng for you to be
the problem-solver.
Your 'fixing' everything starts to pile up
on you. You then get frustrated with them cause you have such
'useless' employees around you.
I wonder why!
So, here's a way to try.
For someone struggling with something,
however small, use the 4S Method.
- Show - Supervise - Stand Back - Succeed
This means that you Show them how to do something, then you
watch them and Supervise as they do it, maybe they get it wrong
- if so, let them aanlyse why. Stand Back whilst they at last
Succeed - and then get it right forever.
This is the 'Neither'. You get the job done right, by the person
whose job it is to get it rihgt and then you're freed up to do
more of this.
Thus building a team of capable, fulfilled and 'motivated to
learn more' individuals.
No Frying Pan, no Fire and Neither of you feel bad about it.
In fact, everything is a bit rosy, after all!
|
