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Perspective: The Art and Science of Managing Direct Reports

2014; Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation; Volume: 48; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2345/0899-8205-48.2.101

1943-5967

Kenneth Maddock,

Risk Management in Financial Firms

The following article is based solely on the opinions of the author. Any facts included are present entirely by accident and aren't the fault of the author.There; I feel so much better making that disclaimer. For the many years, I've read the outstanding content in this journal, I've always been a bit intimidated by the scientific and/or logical focus of most of the articles, while my articles largely have been opinion pieces. Oh sure; I've dipped my toes into the pool of science occasionally, usually pulling them back quickly out of fear of having them nipped off by more scientific minds. I usually skirt that pool by taking the path of enlightened opinion. So now I'm asked to write an article on how best to manage direct reports. And once again, as I venture down the path of opinions, I apologize to those eagerly awaiting a fountain of facts and formulas.I wander down that path because no formulas exist for managing your direct reports. Managing is an art more than a science. Every individual is unique, and how you manage them is different. In fact, one of my direct reports, Pam Roberts, wrote the complementary article on the opposite page on how you can manage your manager, using the Seven Dwarfs as an analogy to illustrate the differences among types of managers. Although I love her analogy, I'm not going to steal her idea and compare direct reports to the Seven Dwarfs, as creative and accurate as that approach may be. I confess: It does make me curious as to which dwarf she thinks I am.This article is written largely from my perspective as an executive. But I believe that most of what I say applies to all levels of management.I mentioned previously that managing is an art as much as a science, but certain basic practices need to be applied before you can add the art. The number one thing that any manager needs to do at any level is to be very clear on expectations. State them, repeat them, repeat them again, repeat them some more, and then repeat them again. Then repeat as needed.But without other pieces of the puzzle, these constantly stated expectations become just another annoying, repetitious series of platitudes. You have to measure against your expectations, and you have to set standards for those measures. If you keep talking about the importance of something and don't measure it or don't set standards, your staff won't believe that you really think it's important. Your actions speak louder than your words.The last piece to that particular puzzle is accountability. Without accountability, nothing else you do matters. Your direct reports, assuming they have a modicum of basic intelligence, are going to base their actions on the things for which they are held accountable. If you choose not to hold your team accountable, you can hope that every direct report you have is noble, intelligent, always on the lookout for small children they can save from getting hit by a bus, and doesn't require guidance to perform at an exceptional level. But on the very small chance that you haven't been able to hire all superstars, you had better hold people accountable.So that's it. Management is a pretty simple thing, right?But taking those five steps isn't easy. Challenges abound for each step. However, the artistic side of the equation is even harder. How do you communicate with each staff member so that they understand expectations? If your direct reports aren't meeting standards, is it because they don't care, because they don't have the ability, because they don't have the resources, or something else entirely? After you figure out why they aren't meeting expectations, what corrective action should you take? Does one approach work for all? Not usually. This is pretty complicated, isn't it? Are you sure you still want to do this?Perhaps I should have started with the fact that before you bother learning how to best manage your direct reports, you better make sure you have the talent to manage staff and the stomach to take it on. If you had the talent to be a leader—if you can communicate effectively, understand challenges and figure out how to overcome them, and possess all of the other skills needed to be a leader—you still have to be able to take the stress associated with the job. If you are convinced you have those traits, read on.One of the most important management arts is learning and understanding your staff. Understanding your staff starts with an obvious but often overlooked tactic: talk to them. That's right; engage in actual conversation. Share what's on your mind and get your staff to share what's on theirs. Learn something about them. You don't need to be their friend, but you do need to make them understand that you realize that they are a person, not a stat on a spreadsheet. When you know someone and establish trust that you will be open and honest with them, it makes it easier to have the hard conversations. It makes it easier to communicate in a way that they will understand. It also will make it easier for them to let you know what they are really thinking. That's the single most important factor for a relationship between a manager and a direct report. If your direct reports aren't willing to tell you what they are thinking or what is really going on with their team, you are in a hole you probably can't get out of.As a manager, you also need to know when to help your direct reports and when to leave them alone. It is normal for a new manager to want to stay just as involved with the details they used to handle in addition to taking on expanded duties. Don't fall into that trap. You have to look at your ability to handle your duties as if your responsibilities are a piece of rubber. The wider you stretch your responsibilities, the thinner the rubber gets. At times, you will need to dig deeply into an issue and help out a direct report. Just keep in mind that when you pull the rubber to make it deeper in one spot, you have to narrow your focus or you'll tear the piece of rubber. I think about this with my team all the time. As with most organizations, we are trying to get more efficient. In some cases, that means giving my directors responsibility for more than one site. I told that they have to understand that I'm pulling on one hand and the organization is pulling on the other to stretch them out. They need to let me know if they feel something tearing. If so, it probably means that we aren't meeting our responsibilities and we have to add resources or narrow their scope.One of the most important factors in effectively managing your direct reports is understanding the stimulus to which you should react. What information will you rely upon to help you to decide if you need to get involved? In my case, I have sometimes been guilty of overreacting to e-mails. Sometimes, when you are copied on an e-mail, you feel compelled to get involved, when in fact your direct report already had the situation under control and was just keeping you informed. I have had a couple of recent situations that may help you to understand how to approach various issues. I took on some new responsibilities and have a new director reporting to me. He made me aware of a situation they were having with connectivity associated with their electroencephalography units. He described the issue, told me who was involved, told me what they suspected, and described what they were doing about it. I just thanked him for letting me know, told him to let me know if he needed help, and moved on. One reason is simply that he gave me the level of detail to make me comfortable that he was on top of the issue. The other reason is that as a new direct report, he needs to know that I trust him. That trust doesn't extend infinitely. If I need to get involved, I will. I have to be like a spider on a web. I want to scurry to the edge of my web when a nice, juicy bug gets caught, but I can't afford to waste my time chasing leaves.Another situation involving patient falls presented itself. The staff were concerned that the bed exit alarm was not working correctly and therefore could be contributing to patient falls. Because executives chimed in on the initial message and because of past concerns at the site about the nurse call, I thought it was good to get involved. But I didn't jump in and try to fix the problem. I responded to let them know I was aware, told them what we would be doing and who would be managing the situation, and gave them a timeline for an update on the situation. Then, I stepped back out. I like to use the analogy of a fishing bird. If I'm a fishing bird, I have to go down into the water to eat, but I don't have gills. If I stay under water too long, I'll drown. Leave the water to those with gills. I belong at a higher level, being able to keep my eyes on many things, just diving into the water when I have to.I would like you to take away a few key points from this article:Thanks for reading, and if we run into each other at the AAMI Annual Conference, buy me a coffee and I'll tell you which dwarf I think I am.