"Manage Each Employee Differently"
(Commandment #8) from The Ten Commandments for Managers
reprinted by permission
By Greg Blencoe

"We are all different. A good manager will recognize those differences and treat each person as an individual."²²

Mary Kay Ash

Founder and former CEO, Mary Kay Cosmetics

 

 

A couple of months ago I bought a new suit. After I selected the one I wanted, I had to get my measurements taken. They measured my waist. They measured my arms. They measured my legs. They measured around my chest. It seemed like it took longer to take my measurements than it did to select the suit! This was time well spent, though. Can you imagine if stores only sold suits in one size? It's not enough to buy a nice suit. It must fit well, too.

          In the same sense, you should tailor your management style to the needs and abilities of each individual employee. Although general rules certainly apply, you should not manage employees with the cookie cutter concept of dealing with them all the same way. In addition, trying to change people is futile because people are who they are. The best strategy is to take a customized approach with each employee in order to make them as productive as they can be.

 

 

Employees have different abilities, needs, and preferences. Some people want to grow and have their responsibilities increased so they constantly have a new challenge. Others are perfectly content doing the same job year after year. Some employees don't want you to help them at all. Others need a little more guidance. Some workers like to be praised in public. Others are totally uncomfortable with it. Some people want the corner office and a lofty title. Others could care less about status symbols. Some employees like to start work early in the morning so they can leave earlier. Others like to start later in the morning and then be the one who turns out the lights when they leave. Some workers would love to sit in on a management meeting. Others don't want to have anything to do with them. Some people want to network with employees from other departments. Others only want to deal with people in their own area. Some employees get a boost of energy from working on a team. Others just want to work alone.

          Some workers are quick learners, but once they get the process down they get bored. Others are slow learners, but love the monotony once they nail down the steps involved. Some people like to be creative in finding solutions to a problem. Others want you to give them more structure and feedback. Some employees are good at thinking of ideas, but not implementing them. Others don't have many good ideas, but can implement the ideas that other people suggest. Some workers are happy to work overtime. Others have absolutely no desire to work over forty hours per week. Some people need to be constantly told that they are doing a good job. Others only want to be rewarded with the opportunity to do stimulating work. Some employees are too shy to give their ideas in front of a group, preferring to tell you in private. Others have no problem voicing their opinion in front of everybody else. Some workers will complain at the drop of a hat. Others will never complain. Some people will be more productive working on a team with John, Fred, and Terri. Others will be most effective when they work with Alexa, Judy, and Matt.

 

 

Recently, I asked ten people the question "What do you want most from your manager to help you succeed in your job?" Here are their answers:

 

          Employee #1 - "I want my manager to teach me exactly what I need to know to do my job. I'd like to know a lot more than just the basics, because I don't want to have to figure out everything on my own. Also, if I ever have a question, I want my manager to be available to answer it."

 

          Employee #2 - "I really want my manager to give me additional responsibilities as a reward for doing a good job. My juices really get flowing when I begin a new challenge."

 

          Employee #3 - "The most important thing to me is that I want to know where I stand. If I am doing a great job, let me know. If I am doing a lousy job, let me know. It just bugs the heck out of me when my manager does not give me any feedback on my job performance."

 

          Employee #4 - "My favorite aspect of my job is being able to work with other talented people on team projects. Most of the time, they work out really well. But sometimes I get stuck on a team with a major slacker. That is the easiest way to take the wind out of my sails. The rest of us will be working hard and one person won't contribute anything. Above all, I want my manager to do something with these people. Frankly, I could care less if they are fired or not. Just don't make me work with them."

 

          Employee #5 - "I am pretty ambitious so I want my manager to be my mentor and show me the ropes. I would like to go out to lunch with my manager every once in a while and talk about the ins and outs of the business. It would also be nice to be introduced to other important managers in the company."

 

          Employee #6 - "I want my manager to allow me to be creative in coming up with solutions to problems. It seems like some managers talk about 'thinking outside the box', but when push comes to shove things usually have to be done their way. That makes work a lot less interesting."

 

          Employee #7 - "Above all, I want to have an open line of communication with my manager. Every once in a while, I need to vent about a customer or another employee. And it is nice when I can go to my manager with a problem I am having and know I will be heard."

 

          Employee #8 - "I really can't stand managers that are bossy and critical. Constant negativity really brings me down. I would like my manager to do things to lift me up."

 

          Employee #9 - "I will probably come off sounding like a loner and maybe I am. But what I want most is to be left alone to do my job."

 

          Employee #10 - "I want my manager to respect me as a person, not just see me as another employee number. I know respect has to be earned. But if I've earned it, then give it to me."

 

          The diversity of these answers is fascinating. They illustrate the different needs that all employees have. Therefore, you should get to know your employees, learn what makes each of them tick, and then adjust how you manage them accordingly.

 

 

Here are four examples regarding effectively adapting to employees to maximize their productivity:

 

          John Sedbrook is the director of information systems for a consumer electronics company. After the retirement of one of his project managers, he promoted a very bright young programmer to replace him. The new project manager did pretty well in the position for a year and a half. But one day he came into John's office and confessed that his duties as a manager really wore him down. The new project manager admitted he liked the pay and status of the new position, but he realized that wasn't what was most important to him and requested to go back to being a programmer. John granted his request and gave him a lateral move to a senior programmer position. He then promoted one of the experienced programmers who was not the most technically proficient one in the group, but would be good at handling the managerial duties of the job.

 

***

 

          The software development division of a Northern California based software company gives employees some flexibility to choose what hours they work. Although there are certain times when the developers have to be there for a meeting, the developers can arrive anywhere from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. and with a one hour lunch they can leave anywhere from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. depending on what time they arrive in the morning.

There are a few who are early risers and make it to work by 7 a.m. every day. Others prefer to start work later in the day.

          Sometimes, if the developers have something going on outside of work during work hours, they will arrive to work early, go do something else, and then come back in the evening to complete a day's worth of work. One employee who usually starts late does this once a week in the spring so he can attend his daughter's soccer practices in the middle of the afternoon.

          The developers love the flexible schedule format, because it allows them to work when they are the most productive. Granted, this obviously would not be possible in a retail or manufacturing environment, because in these types of businesses you have to be there at a certain time. But it has worked very well for the software company, because most of the time it doesn't matter what time the developers are at the office as long as they are getting their work done.

 

***

 

          Jessica Donohue is a district manager for a national fitness chain. Twice a year, she meets with the manager from each gym in her district to go over their performance. Most of the managers have been very cooperative in these meetings. However, one of them, Carl Griffin, was always a headache for Jessica. Carl was always pleasant when Jessica praised his work. But he would get very defensive whenever she would bring up areas where he needed to improve. After going through three performance reviews without making any progress, Jessica gave up on her conventional tactics and decided to take an unorthodox approach.

          During the fourth meeting, Jessica told Carl that from then on he was going to be responsible for his own performance review. They would still meet every six months, but Carl would be responsible for judging his performance and he would communicate the results to Jessica. Surprisingly, this ended up working like a charm. Carl was much tougher on himself than Jessica ever was and tried hard to improve in areas where he needed to get better. Much to Jessica's delight, the self-evaluation seemed to get Carl to take ownership of making the necessary improvements.

 

***

 

          Tom Stenmark manages a technical support call-in center for an internet service provider. He was promoted to the position after three years of being in a tech support position. Tom now manages twelve tech support employees. One of them, Danny, can diagnose and solve problems that customers have better than anybody in the department including Tom. However, he does not have very good social skills and often came off as obnoxious and patronizing when speaking to customers. That led to a lot of complaints which put Danny in jeopardy of losing his job.

          Tom was in a bind because he did not want to lose an employee who knew so much. Also, almost all of the people in tech support were entry-level employees who were there to get some experience before moving on to another position in the company. As a result, Tom was always stuck with a few employees who were not very good at their jobs due to their inexperience. However, Danny preferred to work in tech support and had no desire to leave the department. Even though Tom wanted to keep him, he could not accept having customers being treated disrespectfully.

          Tom came up with the idea of creating a new position for Danny. Instead of dealing with customers directly, he would assist any of the other tech support employees when they encountered a problem that they could not immediately solve for the customer. Usually, when one of the new employees had a question, they would try to ask another person in tech support, but that was not always possible if everybody was on a call. As a result, Tom would often get interrupted by them when they would have to come to him to ask questions. But with Danny in his new position, Tom was rarely taken away from the other responsibilities of his job.

          The tech support employees also liked the arrangement. They said they felt guilty in the past when they had to ask Tom a question, because they knew he was busy. In addition, they understood it was just Danny being Danny when he got a little obnoxious and they did not take it personally.

 

 

In regard to the Model T his company introduced early in the 20^th century, Henry Ford said that customers could have the car in any color they wanted as long as it was black. With your employees, you will need to offer a little more customized approach to make them as productive as possible.