[su_dropcap style=”flat”]I[/su_dropcap] WATCHED A fellow Marine Captain embarrass himself because of issuing a very clear and concise order without thinking of the consequences behind the order. He set up a desk and chair in our warehouse and told a Gunnery Sergeant he was not very fond of to sit there every day and do absolutely nothing because everything he did was wrong. The Captain then wrote a fitness report (the civilian equivalent would be a performance evaluation) and graded him as “unsatisfactory” in the area of regular duties among other very low grades. Then the Captain proceeded to process the Gunnery Sergeant for an administrative discharge on the grounds of incompetence. The Gunnery Sergeant was afforded a military lawyer to represent him during the formal proceedings and the questioning of the Captain went something like this.
“So, let me make this clear so that all can understand. You ordered the Gunnery Sergeant to sit at the desk in the warehouse you had set up for him and do nothing. Is that correct?”
“Yes.”
“And what did he do?”
“He sat there and did nothing,” replied the Captain with indignation in his tone.
“So, he followed your order completely and did exactly what you told him to do. Therefore, when I look at this fitness report and see that you marked him unsatisfactory in the area of regular duties that would be a lie because his very act of sitting there and doing nothing, by your own admission, was fulfilling his assigned duties completely. As a matter of fact, by your own statement, he was outstanding at sitting there and doing nothing. Is that not correct?”
“Well, no,” the startled Captain began, “he should of tried to do something.”
Now the lawyer had him, “Ah, but Captain, would that not have been a complete disobedience of your order to sit and do nothing! So, based upon your own testimony, the Gunnery Sergeant did an outstanding job at following your order and should be graded such on this fitness report. Correct?”
The Gunnery Sergeant returned to full duty with a fitness report that reflected outstanding performance of his duties. It happened because the Captain did not understand the consequences of issuing instructions that if followed to the letter, gave the Gunnery Sergeant the complete right to get paid to do nothing every day.
So, when supervising an individual or a team, ensure assigned tasks are understood, supervised, and accomplished with a successful outcome as the end result. Here are some tips to ensure your people understand what you need them to do and how they can come to the end of a task or project with positive results.
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Once a task is assigned to an employee or a team and before you provide them with detailed instructions on how you want the work accomplished, ensure that the need for detailed instruction exists. Nothing will take away motivation from your team then behavior that tells them you do not trust them to make the right decisions to get the task accomplished in a successful manner. So give them the task and the clearly defined goal for a successful end and let them come up with the steps to accomplish the task. Then ask them to tell you how they plan to accomplish the goal. This will allow you to provide constructive feedback and not direct their effort to the point of stifling their creative thinking.
Ensuring your instructions are clearly understood is important so practice outlining instruction. Write them down and then ask the basic reporter question – does this instruction clearly answer the ‘who, what, where, when and how’ that I wish to convey to the listener?
Encourage your employees to ask questions about your instructions when they do not understand. Even when you make every effort to give clear and concise instructions, your listener may not fully understand what you want. So, open dialog is important. Let them ask any question they feel will help them get a complete picture of your need. One way to ensure your team knows to ask questions is a simple lead in that tells them you appreciate the questions such as, “Thanks for asking that…” or “That’s a good question…”
On the other side of the coin, you should also feel free to ask your employees questions so that you can ascertain their complete understanding of your instructions. Again, a non-threating lead in can be helpful such as, “Let me be sure I was clear with my instructions…” or “So that I know I gave you good information…”
Make sure your employees have the resources they need to accomplish the mission. If you know in advance that specific reports, documents, tools, etc. will be required to enable your team to be successful with your request, make sure they know where these can be found or provide them right up front so that the team knows you expect them to be looking at these items.
Finally, exercise care and thought in the supervision of your team. Remember, over supervision hurts initiative and creates resentment but under supervision will not get the job done. Is it a like walking a tight rope? Absolutely but it still comes down to the most important goal – you want your team to be successful so that they grow in confidence so you need to ensure you help them be successful. Your leadership can make them shine when properly directed.[/message][su_spacer]
I worked as a database engineer for a software company that was awarded a contract with Union Pacific Railroad to write Y2K compliant software for the real estate division. One of the big milestones that we had to meet was providing the initial version of the user’s manual to the real estate department so that they could begin the process of evaluating the end product and conducting training so that when we implemented, there would be a smooth transition from the old system to the new system.
The project manager for the railroad told me up front that he thought our timeline was too aggressive and that we would never be able to deliver this first big milestone on time. He stated that the Union Pacific IT Department was already complaining that they should have been allowed to address the Y2K problem internally because when the year 2000 rolled around, the real estate division would be unable to function because of our failure to provide the new software on time. He wanted me to understand just how important this one event was to setting the tone for a successful project completion.
As I looked at my calendar, I knew that there was no way I could meet this milestone without help. So, as I prepared to begin writing the detailed instructions that would be the heart of the manual, I sat down with representatives of our customer service division, sales division, IT division, and administrative support division to outline the areas where I would need their help. I was careful to define each of the related tasks, the order in which each needed to be completed, how the tasks related to each other, and why this was important for the image of our company. Soon, I had people making suggestions on what tasks they could take on and how they could complete them in a timely manner. The meeting took a little over an hour, but in the end we had a plan that allowed each division to provide support to the project and they were excited about what we could accomplish by working together.
The manual was delivered on time and the customer was very pleased with the end product. The project manager for the railroad was impressed that we were “the first outside vendor to meet every milestone in the project plan on time”, and the Union Pacific IT Director was now an ally for our company. Most importantly, the internal team that worked on the manual gained confidence in our ability to meet any challenge because from this point on, we knew that if we communicated the need in clear and concise terms, we could work together to formulate a plan that would lead to success.
If you want your team to really excel, ensure assigned tasks are understood, supervised, and accomplished with a successful outcome as the end result. The time spent getting this right will ensure you don’t go wrong.
Reading this, I’m reminded of a director that had a difficult boss. His new boss told him that he was a bad leader, incapable, and incompetent. He heard this on his first day. For three months, his boss architected the director’s failure. You see, the director ran into some bad luck. During the time of when he was hired to when he started there was a massive reorg. His new boss just started a day or two before he did. But the boss made up her mind on him long before that.
Luckily the director was moved to a new area and did quite well.
Chris – I am always dismayed when I hear stories like you shared because unfortunately, it happens too often. So thank you for sharing this so we can all continue to learn real life situations.
Where were you when I was working and praying for a good manager? I love this philosophy because it is one way to guarantee you are going to get high performance. “comes down to the most important goal – you want your team to be successful so that they grow in confidence so you need to ensure you help them be successful.” One of my managers would assign a project and then after giving me or whoever was assigned a few hours to study the requirements, asked a few questions like, “How will you approach this? What resources do you think you’ll need? Do you see how this will interface with ….” and maybe a few other questions. It was to get us thinking big picture and envision the end result with ideas on how to get there. I had my share of managers who would throw us in the deep end of the ocean and see if we would sink or swim.
Jane, thank you so much for you kind words. I was so fortunate to work with some absolutely wonderful leaders in the Marine Corps who were tough but fair, who challenged me to be better then I thought I could be, and who never missed an opportunity to turn my mistake into a learning experience. Today, in my every day job and through these articles, I try to share what I learned so that when I die, the folks who knew me will think about a positive lesson they learned by knowing me. That will say more about my life than any words spoken at a funeral.
Great story, Len. I can only imagine what was going through that Gunny’s mind as he played along with the officer. Oh my. Your tips are great!
Thanks, Carol. The Captain eventually assigned the Gunny to work for me – and not as a favor. His real surprise was that I was able to get the Gunny to be productive – and that was like pouring salt in his wound. When he asked me how I did it, I reminded him that a Colonel had told me a long time ago that when walking into a floundering organization, start by reminding the people they are Marines then the rest will fall in place. Once the Gunny was treated like a senior Marine and held accountable like a senior Marine should be, he started acting like one.
When you go into a service like the Marine Corps, you tend to go in putting everyone on a pedestal – after all, they’re Marines. The best of the best. It isn’t too long into one’s career that you realize that Marines are human – some are good leaders, some are not. It was interesting watching our son as a young Marine officer finally catch on to that fact. Once he got it, he was no longer so frustrated with the Corps.
My grandson – same! He called me one night frustrated that the guys, no longer in boot camp, were getting lazy about their workouts and in general getting soft on self-discipline. For 45 minutes we talked about looking at himself only, realizing that everyone makes choices, you can encourage but you will drive yourself to depression if you try to change someone else. You can imagine the conversation. He calmed down in the end and he said he felt better. It was 2 years ago already. We haven’t had that conversation again. I think he got it – at least that part of getting along with people who occupy the same space.
Awesome. I’m laughing inside about this. Love how that turned out.
Thanks.