I sat at the car dealership for three hours Monday waiting for my brakes to be fixed, didn't leave with my vehicle and enjoyed the experience.
The dealership has a small business office for customers, like the ones you often find at hotels. I was fortunate to share the two-seat office space with one of the most enlightened executives that I've ever met. Adam is a vice president and general manager for a national company, which is fortunate to have him on the payroll.
I got firsthand exposure to Adam's management style when he called the boss of a work crew he had visited earlier in the day. He had been alarmed at what he saw and was following up on the impact of his conversation with the work crew's foreman. After he had relayed his concerns in a non-threatening manner, Adam turned the conversation in an unanticipated direction. His top priority had been worksite safety, but he also wanted to make sure that his comments to the workers had been well-received.
"I just want to make sure your crew and the foreman don't think that I'm some guy who shows up out of the blue, barks orders, then disappears," Adam said to the work crew's boss.
This was effective business leadership on display. A manager who not only saw something that he found disturbing but also tackled the problems then ensured his actions had the desired effect without damaging relationships with his workers.
I wanted to know more about Adam.
"The joys of command," I said, still peering into my computer screen.
"Yeah, workers can get really wound up," Adam replied, "I just wanted to make sure that even though I saw things that weren't right, they understood that I respected them."
"It's a sign of the times," I said. "Pretty much everybody is afraid of losing their job in this economy."
"That's definitely true," the VP said.
What followed was a wide-ranging conversation about U.S. health care reform and uncertainty in the global economy holding back job creation, raising children of color in a state that doesn't have a clue about race, and the qualities to look for in a good manager. We agreed that, at least for the time being, the United States was likely to have an essentially jobless recovery from the Great Recession. We agreed that ignorance was largely responsible for the pervasive racism our children had been exposed to in the Granite State. And we agreed that, if they take action at all, most American managers grab the most readily available object out of their tool belt when they encounter a problem: the hammer.
Here are some other insights I gained from Adam about good management practices:
- When hiring a manager, ask open-ended questions that will reveal how job candidates will react to difficult situations, which will help determine whether they will run away from problems or, when they do take action, handle challenging employees in an appropriate manner.
- Don't be afraid to call an employee out over communication that appears insubordinate, but take a tactful approach. "If I'm trying to give direction to someone and they roll their eyes, I say, 'There are at least a couple of ways people communicate beyond talking. What are you trying tell me when you roll your eyes? I know you're trying to tell me something, and it's OK to just tell me,'" he said.
- Before a manager starts tearing an employee's work apart and rebuilding it in his or her own image, it's important to understand the situation from the employee's perspective. "I'll ask, 'Help me understand why things are working out this way?'" Adam said. "I'm open to the idea that I could be wrong. And it's in everybody's interest to fully understand the situation before any changes are made."
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