The Management See-Saw

By Jan van der Hoop

Deadlines hinder management success.

Sounds absurd in a world where it seems things only get done because we have deadlines to work towards, doesn’t it? Bear with me.

Three decades ago companies decided that the path to sustainable success was to gut their organizations of successive layers of management that were deemed redundant, unproductive overhead. In many cases this was probably a valid assumption.

In order to pick up the slack, ‘management’ tasks such as project management, planning, budgeting, administration, and reporting all got pushed onto the plates of the few managers and supervisors who remained. They were forced to step up and pick up the work that was left to be done.

But in the process what got squeezed off overflowing plates were the activities that were, in Stephen Covey’s model, ‘Important but not Urgent’, things we gave value through lip service but rarely measured, had deadlines for or held managers accountable to such as the development and retention of talent, employee engagement, coaching, mentoring, or offering meaningful performance feedback.

The idealist in me wants to believe we can revert to a model where managers can and do find the time for these mission-critical activities, and where they fully appreciate the value of their efforts in these areas… but that’s pie-in-the-sky. Businesses can’t change their economic and cultural models overnight.

What can we do? We can put tools in the hands of managers and their direct reports that help them make the most of the scarce time they do have for 1:1 communication. Tools that jumpstart conversations about things that matter and that help people grow through understanding themselves and others better.

If you’re not using tools like the Profile XT and the Checkpoint 360 and showing managers how to use them effectively to strengthen your organization by spending even part of their day on the ‘important, not urgent’ activities, you are leaving your organization vulnerable.