What part of "follow instructions" don't you understand?

[pluckyduck]

Arrrrggggghhhhhhhhh!




Sorry. Had to let off a little steam.

I gotta have a sit down today with one of my people and I hate having a sit down. (Remember I totally suck at management, as in stink up the joint.) I'm really bad at it.

Sigh.

I managed to get a layer in between me and our customer service/inside sales department, our warehouse, our billing/accounting and our art department so I no longer have to do any of the nitty gritty management stuff there ..... I can make systems and policy and have other people take the grief. I just have to go around and say a lot... and then bitch to the people in charge when their underlings have performance issues. (I'm also, amazingly, not bad at advising and supporting people who are managing other people. Those who can't do, teach? )


Unfortunately, I have one group left with no layer, the small group of folks who work directly with me on marketing stuff. That's comprised of a catalog designer who I just need to yell at about once every two months to snap back into shape, two women who have worked with me for over five years and are completely self directed and (here's the one that trips me up) a fluctuating kinda web kinda tech position. I fired a guy from that spot about six months ago (a guy I really liked), and it about killed me.

Anybody remember the college kid I rescued from being fired from the warehouse? I positioned him into the web tech kinda spot and just two weeks ago gave him a 23% raise. Why do the problems crop up directly after you give somebody a raise?

How do you communicate this without sounding like a bitch:

The basic problem comes down to following instructions. I fly through a workday, juggling a bunch of different responsibilities. When I give a set of instructions, they need to be followed, not improvised on. There's a reason behind everything I say. No, I don't have 30 minutes to have a back and forth about why a certain thing needs to be done a certain way. No, you can't just loosely interpret the instructions and go off and do it the way that you think is better... only to have me discover a week later that you didn't do what I said and now you have to go back and correct it.

I don't need to prove to you that I'm right, okay? Just do it. Why? Because I said so.

Sigh.

I hate sit downs.

I suck.

Andrea

[ThePirateKing]

I swear, the more I hear, the more I think juggling a business sounds suspiciously like being a mom.

Best of luck to you and "the kids."

[magenta321]

Maybe to help combat this problem in the future, you could take a moment to explain to said person WHY you are insistant that things be done the way you want them to be done.

I don't know this person, obviously, but they could be like me. I HATE doing something routine. Every time I do something, my mind is working on how I could do things "better." If that's what this person was doing, perhaps he thought he was doing something good. If he understood what he was up against (ie, "you don't want to do X, because in the end it will lead to Y and cost us a lot of money.)

Was whatever his task is a rote task? If so, I know you are like me (always trying to improve the job, always taking on more responcibilities) and can understand why he might have done this.

Just my two cents anyway.

[jenninca]

I love it.

I absolutely love it.

I am always telling my class that they need to learn to follow directions. I'll tell them that we need to go to computer or gym or whatever (even LUNCH!), and they just sit there. I ask them again, and they wander around. I start my "I'm going to count backwards and anyone who's not in line and quiet is going to pull a card" routine, and about five of them sit in their seats until I get down to 2 and then get upset if I actually make them pull a card for not following directions.

I think I'm going to tell them this story.

Though I like Margaret's thoughts too.

Cindy

[pluckyduck]

Originally posted by ThePirateKing
I swear, the more I hear, the more I think juggling a business sounds suspiciously like being a mom.

Best of luck to you and "the kids."

Oh, Pirate King (good to see you, btw ) it is so much like being a Mom sometimes it is mind boggling. I resist using that metaphor a lot because it could be interpreted as demeaning, but between me and you the similarities are great.

The best part is when the "kids" grow up. The folks who've been with me for a number of years are now like adult children that you've raised and are proud of and watch fly on their own.

Margaret, your questions are excellent ones. Yes, the primary task is rote (never claimed it was a dream job, I rescued the kid from the warehouse), but more important than that, he does have stuff to bring to the table beyond his rote tasks, and I want to encourage that part. We have very few tech savvy folks in the company, I don't want to stomp on someone who has potential. On the other hand, I've got 200 things to do in a day, he can't be a project.

Example:

He's given the task of proofing and updating a group of products on our website. On his own, he decides to add color , and changing font sizes to the product descriptions. If I wanted color and changing font sizes in the product descriptions, I would have put it there in the first place. I'm corporate sales, my product descriptions should not look like your brother John's Geocities website, okay?

This was up for at least a couple weeks before I found it. I had to tell him five times before he finally cleaned all of that extra HTML code out of there, and I was madder every time I had to tell him.

Another example:

He runs across a piece of software that's interesting. Sends me an email, I'm reasonably enthusiastic. I see where it might be helpful, not for my division, but for an identified need in another part of the company. Get a demo version, say I, we'll play with it and talk about it more then.

A day later he sends me a Power Point presentation laying out all of the reasons he perceives the software might be helpful. (The presentation had to have taken him hours to do, hours that he was supposed to be doing something else.)

Did I ask for a Power Point Presentation? I already said that I could see it might be helpful.

Where's the demo copy of the software? Oh, he hadn't arranged for that yet.



Good kid, absolutely salvagable...but this is going to be a trip.

Andrea

[murasaki]

I guess I have a somewhat dissenting viewpoint.

I hate being micromanaged. It is the bane of my existence. If a superior gives me a job to do, I will fulfill their specifications but I will do it my way. Does a major or lieutenant colonel know a better way to do something? Maybe, but maybe I'll find a more efficient way of doing something (one of the advantages of being lazy). Or maybe I'll figure out that their way is the best, but I like to get there on my own. I certainly learn a lot more.

That said, if this guy is not meeting your specifications for the completed project, then yes, it's a problem. And there are some tasks that one just cannot deviate from the given method or the end product will not be the right thing.

Whenever I have a counseling session, I try to emphasize some things the person is doing well first, then I move into the "needs improvement" zone. I find it's less painful for everybody, me included, that way. But it's got to be done.

Good luck, Andrea!

--naomi

[murasaki]

In the meantime, while I was working on my post, you brought up a few more points:

Telling someone to change something five times is unacceptable. More than two is unacceptable in my opinion.

I also hate PowerPoint. The Army has a lot of "power point rangers" that put together a good briefing for the general but it's all show and no substance. The Navy instituted a policy that banned Power Point.

It sounds like you need to establish some ground rules with him, or go over them again. Let him know you're serious. Do you think he's challenging your authority or just clueless?

--naomi

[pluckyduck]

Do you think he's challenging your authority or just clueless?

Clueless. He's a good kid.

There's not a question of authority, it seems there's a question of believing that I really mean what I say. Nearest I can figure at least.

FWIW, not only do I hate being micromanaged, I hate micromanaging. Nothing makes me happier than to just hand off a task and have people complete it whatever way works best for them. I resent being pushed into a spot where I have to micromanage....if I have to go behind him to make sure he does what I tell him to do so I don't all of a sudden end up with a circus on my website, that's a problem. Not only do I detest micromanaging, I don't have time for it.

(I'm sure, by the way, that the combination of my loathing of micromanaging with my control freak personality schizo tendencies is one of the reasons I suck at management. Mixed messages! )

Andrea

[poseidon]

I'll take the dissenting viewpoint, too. I hate being micromanaged. That's one of the reasons I'm succeeding so well working from home -- I thrive when there is as little supervision as possible. I stagnate when I have someone looking over my shoulder.

I also don't follow instructions. Don't get me wrong, I'm always getting to the same end-result that my company wants me at, but I have a different way of getting to that end point.

Much of what I have done to save time and wastefulness has later been adopted by my company as SOP. I still cover all the legal bases that need to be covered. I just don't do it in the same inefficient manner as what the company instructs.

EXAMPLE: We are expected to be at someone's house within 48 hours of receiving an assignment. There's no problem there if you've got a fence that's been run over or been blown down. It's no problem if you've got a roof damaged by wind or hail and it isn't leaking yet.

Problems arise though with anything aside from that. Let's say you've got a broken pipe in your home and it's soaked the floor of an entire room. I can come over, look around, put on my sympathetic face and say, "Wow this looks like a lot of water damage, but until it dries, I can't tell what is really damaged and what isn't. So, call me when it's dried out and I'll come back and look at it again, and then I'll write my estimate."

If I follow instructions, I've wasted probably an hour of my own time (or more) plus about twenty minutes of my client's time, who is now only torqued off because I've told them that I can't do a darned thing for them without coming back.

That kind of rationale follows the plumber who comes out, looks at your sink, and says, "I don't have the right tools here. I'll have to come back later." And, before you say that's stupid, it happens all the time. People get pissed because it's wasting time.

I carefully screen all my assignments by having learned how to ask the right questions and get the right answers out of people. 99% of the people are understanding. 1% of them get all bitchy and demand you come out. I come out, I waste my time and theirs, and they're still bitchy because I can't do anything, so the end result is the same.

Another problem arises with roof claims this time of year. Typically the insured turns in a claim in the middle of a blizzard for a hailstorm that happened the previous summer. Why? Because their house is for sale and their closing is in three days. Yes, this is how nearly 100% of the hail claims I'm assigned in the winter occur.

The next brilliant question is, "Can you get here today?" My response is usually, "Have you looked outside?" They don't seem to care that it's snowing, their roof is under six inches of snow, and that it is impossible to look at their roof. They're, of course, interested that they've got hail damage to their roof and they've got a house closing in three days.

It may take a week or more for that snow to melt off their roof and the roof is safe to climb. Moreover, if they have a roof leak, you need to be able to schedule an appointment to get into the house. Many of these geniuses say they'll be home after 7pm (when it's nice and dark out). They fail to understand that I don't climb roofs with a flashlight.

And that's only one instruction that I fail to follow on a regular basis.

[lynnzop[$]]

Andrea, one of the things I hear you saying is that the end result isn't what you need.

Maybe, since he's a good kid, you can give him assignments that fall into different categories:
1. Stuff that you have no leeway on
2. Stuff that you have leeway on how you get to the end result (that is specifically defined)
3. Stuff that you have complete free reign on.

If you're specific on what category it falls into ("on this project, I need the font size and color to be standard" - what ever standard may be), maybe he will be able to follow directions. Some people just can't be given a desired end result.

On a side note, I had a secretary who spent HOURS on making her email messages pretty. Different fonts, different sizes, different colors...she claimed it made her mundane job more fun She also habitually complained that she couldn't get her work done because there wasn't enough time in the day. When counseled about the "pretty" emails taking up so much of her time, she pouted and said it was the only fun she had at work. We tried giving her more "fun" assignments, to no avail. We ended up letting her go because her productivity just sucked, and another department took her back in where as far as I know, she is still doing the same thing.

Bottom line, I guess, is that some people just need that creative outlet. If you give them a variety of assignments and carefully monitor which ones are "creative", you might be better off from all ends!

Lynn
who also hate to supervise, that's why she DOESN'T do it anymore

[mjfrombuffalo[$]]

Originally posted by pluckyduck



I hate micromanaging. Nothing makes me happier than to just hand off a task and have people complete it whatever way works best for them. I resent being pushed into a spot where I have to micromanage....if I have to go behind him to make sure he does what I tell him to do so I don't all of a sudden end up with a circus on my website, that's a problem. Not only do I detest micromanaging, I don't have time for it.

This is what you need to tell him, and you can pretty much state it exactly the way you've got it here. Tell him that some things just need to be done according to your instructions with no bells and whistles added. Follow-through on other projects is also important, and the follow-through should be what you asked for (the demo) instead of something else (the PowerPoint project). Ask if he understands, then have him explain it back to you to make sure what he thinks you said is what you really meant. If he feels it's stifling his creativity or something, let him know you can give him more creative things to do only when he's proven he can do his current assignments the way you need them to be done.

BTW, my admin professor said something incredibly mind-blowing last week. We were debating probationary periods, specifically "extending probation" for someone who almost, but not quite, is making the grade. The prof's the executive director of a human services agency and has a master's in social work so he's generally a big-hearted guy but on this he said that if someone isn't making the grade after 3 months, they're not going to make the grade and you'll spend more time/energy over the next X years following after this person than you'll spend interviewing and hiring the RIGHT person for the job. But the biggest revelation was: Everyone you ever fire will know they should be fired LONG before you do.

mj