CONCEPTS OF MANAGING

The Most Important Word If I could teach aspiring managers only one concept, without question I would pick accumulating personal credibility. This principle was taught to me by a peer at one firm who then hired me to work for him at another. Though we occasionally didn’t agree, I consider him to have been my most important mentor and a dear friend. Credibility is the most important thing we can possess as a manager. It pertains equally to our relationships with those above us in the chain of command, our dealings with peers, and our interactions with those who work under our direction. If we don’t have it, we’ll find it very difficult to achieve anything of good consequence. Credibility is something we earn. How? It’s amassed by successfully accomplishing tasks we’re assigned or which we volunteer to perform. Credibility is also attained by taking the initiative to correct problems and make improvements. This transpires on the job, but it also accrues as we go about undertaking to do good as a member of humanity. This trustworthiness increases by not only conducting ourselves competently, but with as much compassion as reasonably possible. This integrity is so important that one should go to great lengths to never go on record with lies or inaccurate facts. Have information, like sales results or production metrics, in hand even if you must carry a cheat sheet. Responding to questions that we’re expected to know aids in demonstrating our capability to others. On the other hand, not knowing the details or making bad guesses will quickly get a person labeled incompetent. Should we ever find that we’ve misconstrued facts and then passed them on, we should retrace our steps as swiftly as possible back to our boss, peer, or subordinate. Retract incorrect data by sharing accurate material and refreshing their memories as to the original context, if necessary. Although this can be a bit embarrassing, it’s far wiser than having someone else get to them with the truth of the matter (intentionally or not) and by so doing discredit us. Likewise, if we’ve done something wrong or made a mistake that will influence the efforts of the team, tell the truth. This is a healthier alternative than having others expose our mistake since we haven’t added deceit to the equation. The first time I was aware of violating this principle occurred while I was director of distribution, reporting to the mentor mentioned previously, at a large warehouse operation. It consisted of 600,000 square feet of space, including several satellite locations. We’d just completed a multimillion-dollar project to update almost the entire material handling system inside the primary facility. Of course, after spending this much money senior management hoped the enhancements would meet all expectations with regard to service improvement and return on investment. There was also an unspoken expectation that we wouldn’t need to make any other capital improvement expenditures for a respectable amount of time. It was in these circumstances that I requested twenty heavy-duty merchandise carts, which would cost about twenty thousand dollars today. Not a relatively large amount but unplanned, so it wouldn’t go unnoticed on the monthly budget recap or might require a separate capital request application. One of my managers had assured me he needed them to better facilitate the flow of bulky merchandise that couldn’t travel the conveyor system through the main facility. Priding myself on getting the necessary resources for my staff as speedily as possible when there was a legitimate need, a verbal request was made to my boss. I trusted in the mantra, “If you want them to get their job done, either get them the necessary tools or explain why they’re not forthcoming”. The concept of how these carts would be used made sense to me and the requesting manager assured me the need was real. Well, you probably guessed it: about two weeks after the carts were delivered; my boss was doing a walkthrough and saw virtually all of them sitting empty. Clearly, they weren’t being utilized in any degree close to what I’d indicated in my sales pitch. The staff hadn’t been trained on how to put them to use. He tactfully confronted me with that fact and reminded me that I rather passionately assured him how badly we needed this equipment, that the money would be spent wisely, and that they would save us labor dollars. Instead, they were just collecting dust. The next time I said I needed tools and wanted to spend limited budget money, he indicated he might require me to write an analysis so he could confirm I had the facts right. That’s the stuff of which credibility is made. Not only did my integrity take a hit, but so did the requesting manager’s. I’d been in the enviable position of simply asking my boss for resources or support, and he’d give them readily. Now I was going to have to go to the effort of writing a thorough report, with the return on investment (ROI) spelled out and the possibility I still might not get my request granted.