Can you help me be a better boss?

October 28, 2005 12:09 PM

Help me be a better boss?

I'm a 30 year old in charge of 30 - 40 mostly part time workers aged between 18 and 25 years of age. I've never done any sort of management training or read any of the "manuals" and have always just gone on gut instinct regarding my management style. I tend to pay particular attention to delegation according to their skills, empowerment within their respective roles, perks and benefits where possible and generally trying to keep the working environment as relaxed as possible. However, recently I've noticed a lot of in-fighting (often personal fallouts, side-taking, arguments) among the older staff, particularly between those in specialist positions and those vying to fill these roles (and the resultant increase in pay / esteem). I've spoken to them individually and as a group but it still persists and I'm tempted to remove all the extra responsibility and return them all to a level playing field where noone is "above" the other.

Anyway, all this aside can anyone recommend good online guides to management on this scale or textbooks / manuals they found particularly helpful or insightful? Any personal management tips and techniques are also very welcome.

posted by brautigan to work & money (19 comments total)

You can be their buddy, or their boss. Not both. Decide which you want more.
posted by veedubya at 12:22 PM on October 28, 2005

My husband manages a team of former peers, and also hadn't done a lot of reading or any courses. He gained a lot of insight from Jack Welch's "Winning", which he picked up very randomly when he saw it on sale at Costco, inspired by the fact that his sister recently took a position at GE.

I read it too, and having managed people for many years in my former life, I can say that much of what he suggests are methods that worked well for me as a manager.
posted by padraigin at 12:28 PM on October 28, 2005

remove all the extra responsibility and return them all to a level playing field

Well, you just learned one important lesson. Be careful what you give, because taking things back is worse than never having given them in the first place.
posted by StickyCarpet at 12:38 PM on October 28, 2005

Consider reading a book on win-win negotiation, such as Getting to Yes by Fisher and Ury.
Pretty much everything you are doing is a negotiation, and having good tactics that lead to win-win outcomes will make everyone feel better.
posted by cushie at 12:49 PM on October 28, 2005

You can be their buddy and their boss. But you have to be straight with them. Don't pretend that they're all equal when they're not actually equal. In fact, your pretensions to a "level playing field" may be exacerbating the in-fighting. Remember: The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal. Stop pretending everybody's equal. You should make it very clear with everybody what their positions are and what responsibilities those positions entail. If people aren't happy with their positions then speak with them and figure out a way, perhaps even set down a concrete advancement plan. Don't be afraid to be stern. If this is a team, this sort of internal fighting and competition can fester and jepoardize everything--including your job. I'd say drop the equality bullshit and put people in their place. Make it clear that you're the team, everybody is an important member of the team and has a part to play, and you're the captain. And definitely don't remove responsibilities! Wow. This will cause far, far, more problems than it could ever solve.
posted by nixerman at 12:53 PM on October 28, 2005

Let them do their jobs.
The worst bosses I've ever had were all micro-managing controllers who honestly believed they knew how to do everyone's job better than the ones in the job. Nothing kills morale and incentive quicker than micro-management.
posted by Thorzdad at 12:57 PM on October 28, 2005

You don't need a book. You got the job after demonstrating some qualities, and now it's time to put those qualities to use. To restate the friend/boss thing above, it's a matter of being the guy who gives them the hard news, the bad news, the hard facts, and getting it over with.

"Stop with the nonsense" and if they don't it's time to drop the axe. Boom, simple; it's cold, sure, but so's the numbers that justify your paycheck.

Listen, pay attention here: They're acting the way they're acting because they know they can get away with it. Then can get away with it because you don't want to confront, you want to be the nice guy. Hell, that's normal, we all want to be the nice guy, but you're not getting paid to be the nice guy, you're being paid to keep bullshit like this from happening. It's affecting production and now it's time to get production back on track. You've let this go on too long as it is.

While this will be offensive to some, you'll find it easiest if you think of your employees like children testing their limits and act accordingly.
posted by Elvis at 1:02 PM on October 28, 2005

Try reading the One Minute Manager. It's a short book but has some good management insight...
posted by UncleHornHead at 1:24 PM on October 28, 2005

For the record, there I don't tend to blur the line between boss and friend , however my assistant who deals with many of the people involved DOES, which may be a problem. Last time the infighting came to my attention they were left in no uncertain terms that they were to resolve their issues promptly or lose their positions. Unfortunately this just seemd to shut them up rather than make amends. And I've "wielded the axe" a few times so I'm not known as a soft touch.
posted by brautigan at 1:39 PM on October 28, 2005

Throw bats. Seriously.

For starters, that will get their attention, and anything you have to say at that moment (choose your words in advance, and choose them carefully) will fall on receptive ears.

I'm speaking metaphorically when I say "throw bats", but if you've seen Bull Durham you know what I'm talking about. Make a very sudden, dramatic move that will catch them off-guard.

This won't work with older employees - anyone who's reached middle age is long past caring about the mental state of their boss. But it sounds like you've got young workers. They can still be unnerved. Unnerve them.
posted by rocketman at 2:44 PM on October 28, 2005

It's not clear that there are any supervisors (or team leaders); are you the direct boss of everyone? If you are, that's quite problematical (technical term: "span of control"). Even if only 15 or 20 people are working at the same time, one person can't possibly do a good job of supervising when (as it seems) not everyone does exactly the same thing.

A team leader is someone who is more experienced, someone to whom employees should go to first if they have questions, and someone to whom you communicate ("let Joe know, when he reports in, that we're having problems with X and he should be particularly careful when doing Y"). They can't hire, fire, promote; how much authority you give them is up to you (for example, asking someone to switch job duties temporarily, or not). You pay them extra; they're responsible for monitoring behavior.

Two more points:

* Exactly what ARE the penalties for improper behavior like arguments?
* When two employees get into an argument, it's probably not a good idea to try to determine who is at fault. It's easier to assess penalities on both.

As for incentives and penalities, other than pay: perhaps who gets priority in schedule setting, who gets to replace a specialist when that person is temporarily absent; who gets an hour off (or an hour of extra pay) for NOT getting into a fight during a two-week period, etc. (You could even ASK people what incentives and penalities you could set up to get everyone to work together.)
posted by WestCoaster at 2:50 PM on October 28, 2005

The structure is myself at general manager overseeing several departments. I have an assistant manager. In the 3 larger departments I appointed team leaders from among the staff, all experienced and good at their jobs to undertake the most responsible tasks in this area, motivate staff and generally ensure things get done. The structure is very clear in terms of "chain of command" and upward reporting.

Discipline goes the way of informal chat, formal meeting with parties concerned and then written warnings with resultant action if improvements are not made.

And yeah, last week I "threw bats" which appeared to have the desired effect but it's was doing that that kinda prompted this post. Not exactly a textbook management technique...or is it?!
posted by brautigan at 3:28 PM on October 28, 2005

Oh and another side question. The work gets DONE. Our GP is high, customer satisfaction is high, the business is doing better than ever. These guys are all great at their jobs and are generally close friends, they just fight like schoolkids. I worry it affects new staff and the working environment. Should I just be satisfied that the figures more than stack up at the end of the day?
posted by brautigan at 3:32 PM on October 28, 2005

It sounds to me that it is not generic "boss" skills that you need to improve as such, but more specifically counselling skills. You say you've spoken to them individually and as a group, but have you actually listened to them? Everyone has different needs, requires different motivation, has different hopes and aspirations, and when these aren't met, people get frustrated.
So my advise is to ignore the "How to be a better manager" books, and look for a guide on counselling.
You can be their buddy, or their boss. Not both. Decide which you want more.
Rubbish.
posted by chill at 4:49 PM on October 28, 2005

Simply put:

1. Define the different postions.
2. Counsel as to why each has a specific position.
3. Give "Carrots" to those who are not ready for the better postions. "Hey, I've been tracking your progress, you keep it up and you'll be next in line for such and such."
4. Promote upward mobility. It exists. Top performers always benefit (one way or another).
5. Don't ever take any shit. Always listen, but immediatly shut down self-promoting B.S.
6. Exhibit some formality when counseling. Counsel in writing.

This sounds like a short term problem if you handle it now. Congrats to you! You're a Supervisor. Go kick some butt!
posted by snsranch at 5:22 PM on October 28, 2005

I'd just like to second Thorzdad's comments:

The worst bosses I've ever had were all micro-managing controllers who honestly believed they knew how to do everyone's job better than the ones in the job. Nothing kills morale and incentive quicker than micro-management.

Give people jobs, and let them do it. You say the work is getting done? Great, don't dare take away the extra responsbility some people have- why fix what's not broken? So they're fighting and they hate each other? So what. Make quantitative goals, make sure they're getting met and ignore all the infighting, as long as it's not getting in the way of a job well done.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 6:45 PM on October 28, 2005 [1 favorite has favorites]

"... recently I've noticed a lot of in-fighting (often personal fallouts, side-taking, arguments) among the older staff, particularly between those in specialist positions and those vying to fill these roles ..."

Coupla things here:
You don't say how long those people have been in these "specialist" positions. If it's fairly recent, then all this may just be the usual stuff that goes on while the pecking order is re-established. It might also be that some are just reluctant, or too heavy-handed, in re-establishing the order. In fact, that's the purpose of a pecking order - and, beyond broad layers, you can't set the order by decree or fiat.

It may also just be that this is the normal crap-talk that goes on in any group situation, particularly where people aren't working on the same problem physically together. You see/hear it a lot in cubicle farms - people are isolated, but they know others are nearby, so there's this general level of trash-talk, mindless drivel, back-and-forth jabs, and joking infighting, all of which serves no purpose other than to reassure the group that "I'm alive, I know you're still there, and we're all in touch".

It's amazing the sort of insights you get into group dynamics by watching nature shows...

"These guys are all great at their jobs and are generally close friends, they just fight like schoolkids."

This makes me think it's that latter. It's just the group dynamic being established, or maybe it's even where it's decided to settle. If it works, don't mess with it - it too is one of those things which can't be established by decree.

As long as it isn't affecting the productivity or outcomes (you say it isn't), or upsetting the other animals (customers, management, other workgroups), then the best action may be to let it be.

(On the other hand, maybe you have tuned in to the early stages of a problem. Only time and experience will tell...)
posted by Pinback at 7:57 PM on October 28, 2005

Thanks for all perspectives. Much appreciated!
posted by brautigan at 9:46 PM on October 28, 2005

Are you sure you actually have a problem here? As a manager of 30-40 people, you will hear mostly about the problems--you won't hear about it when things are going smoothly. If you see one problem/day, each of your employees are on average experiencing only one problem/month.

Maybe 'Joe' experiences his once-per-month problem, and comes to you for a good rant and gets it off his chest. Then he goes away happy and gets back to work. Some sage advice from you or an offer to have a chat with 'Fred' may be more than 'Joe' expects. 'Joe' probably knows that 'Fred' is unlikely to change, but he just doesn't want to feel like a doormat.

If you implement the wrong one-size-fits-all solution on everyone, you'll be affecting everyone's 29 good days. It might be more destructive that the current situation.
posted by mediaddict at 10:55 PM on October 28, 2005