You miss 100% of the shots you never take.
All in one year I got a new Vice-President (that I will report to), A new Group of Centers. Plasma Centers are facilities that stand alone in different cities, and countries that collect Human Plasma used for further manufacture in the production of medicines for Hemophiliacs as well as other specific medicines. They numbered about 75 in total located from Seattle WA to Berlin Germany, both Company owned and contract facilities, Quality Assurance problems both in number and type like I had never had, installed in several locations programs that had failed miserably. And now it was evaluation day, by my New Boss.
During my performance Evaluation, my VP made a remarkable statement to me.
He said, “If I do not have direct reports that are not making mistakes, how do I know who is trying?” He actually praised my performance and out of the 6 Regional Managers at the time, he ranked me as the top performer for that year.
How does one know the difference between the trying hard to do the right thing to the person who is just goofing off? Talk to his employees. They will fill you in on the absolutes of a good or just a fair or even rotten Manager. On visits to the facility always invite the Manager and his spouse or significant other to dinner. This will give you information beyond belief of what is going on with your operations. It will also give you an opportunity to praise the performance of your Manager in front of his significant other, this is vitally important for good performers on up. Pinning as many (earned) medals on him/her in front of their significant other is the best praise you will ever give. It will also take care of all the HAEA’s (Honey, ask Ed about….)Your person, man or woman who keeps forgetting to ask about the company, be it benefits, policies, or just why can’t significant others go to the annual meeting/
Got an idea you would like to try at a specific location or local business group? As long as the money is there or you can finance the plan or can go find the money to do so, then go for it!!
Most Senior Management is made up of folks that could/would take a chance, and make it work. If they failed, they modified their concept or dropped it all together and started on another one. Fact is how you make all of this work. The first thing I would suggest is to never use the word busy. This is an over used word to begin with and it does not fit the role of someone who wants to take/make all the shots.” Busy” has become the world wide answer to ‘Hi how are you?” If you truly want to succeed in business you will remove this word from your vocabulary. We will discuss this more in detail in future Blogs. Take on as many assignments as you can say for…6 months. Evaluate your “Time” at the end of it. Now what do you call busy? Some how in the last six months you will have learned to budget/schedule/manage your time. This should make you shine within your department/business walls.
Just a quick word about the employees, both who work with and report to you. You must tell them what is going on. What with the change in your work activity and/or theirs. Remember, it really doesn’t matter what you meant to communicate---all that matters is the response of the other person as to what they understood. This is why I am so negative sometimes on meetings. Something of this nature and complexity needs to be communicated one on one to each of the people you will be influencing with this change.
Now it is time to think about challenging your staff, or anyone that will be effected by your change of “taking more shots”. Develop a Plan (which will appear in later blogs) present it to the group, then meet with each one of your staff and or others effected one on one. For your direct reports, make it a bullet point on their evaluation.
Remember, no one has enough time, everyone has all there is. What we do with our time determines what we do with our lives.
How many shots have you taken recently?
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