Sometimes being a consultant is a lot of fun.
I'm presently working on a consulting assignment out of the area, in a leadership position. I haven't been here all that long, but I seem
to already be making my imprint on the local community; at least as far as the people I'm working with are saying.
In a little over two weeks I've heard some of the nicest comments. Today was a typical day. I had one director tell me he wanted to
give me a high five because in an hour I solved an issue they'd been trying to get fixed for almost a year. I had some people in one of my
departments tell me that I had explained something to them that no one else had ever taken the time to teach them. I had another director
tell me that it was nice being able to talk to someone who understood her department and her issues. And I had another employee tell me
she hoped I would stay on forever.
Those are pretty nice things to hear, but I had an interesting discussion with another consultant who's here that was more thought
provoking than anything else I heard during the day, and it made me think the most. She's been here much longer than me, so she's
had time to get to know all the players and hear some of the commentary. As she was telling me some of this stuff, and acknowledging
what people were saying to her about me (see, I'm also an underground success thus far), she said "I wonder why some of these people
didn't speak up and express some of their issues to upper management earlier.
It's an interesting place to be, being a regular employee, and I haven't been one in quite awhile. Yet, I guess somewhere in my mind I
always see myself as identifying with the regular employee because I feel like I can understand what makes them tick and what they may be thinking.
In this instance, my belief is that they all felt as though anything they said would be held against them, and that no one would listen to
their concerns. Based on some of the things I've heard lately, a part of that thinking may have been justified. There's no doubt in my mind
that had they gone to upper management that the person they reported to would have made their lives miserable for at least a short period of time.
There are those managers who need to lead by intimidation because they aren't capable of leading by example. They offer snap responses
to questions without explanation and don't take kindly to being questioned about those answers. They keep things hidden and take on some
responsibilities because it gives them a reason to tell people that they're much too busy to deal with their issues. They feel they can hide
behind this false wall of security and, by keeping many things to themselves, protect their jobs and positions for eternity; after all, their
importance will be noticed by everyone else because they'll be the only person who knows so much.
The problem with that, unfortunately, is that managers sometimes forget that they're in the business of thinking, promoting, and hitting target
figures, not working, so to speak, or personal production. A supervisor who can get out more bills or create more product than all of his or her
employees is valuable to no one, because that's not a supervisor's job. A supervisor's job is to encourage their employees to produce big numbers,
make sure they're trained to do the jobs they're given, and to hit target numbers, or at least try to achieve, figures that they themselves may
be astounded at. No leader is bigger than the team; if they believe that, let the leader try doing all the work themselves. Trust me, it can't be done.
However, I did say a part of that thinking would have been justified. A part of that thinking is flawed, though it's not really their fault.
Employees sometimes get intimidated by the position someone else has. If that person is someone that their immediate supervisor reports
to, and the supervisor is hard to work with, they may feel that the other person will treat them in the same fashion. Of course, it doesn't help
if upper management never takes the time or opportunity to meet with all the employees who report to their direct subordinates at least once
in awhile, but it's also possible that the supervisors go out of their way to discourage such contact, and more often than not they're successful.
It reminds me of why I finally took a week of vacation after working continuously for 15 years (okay, I took a week off when I got married, but
that doesn't count). I had heard where people in certain high level or sensitive positions never took time off, and when they were finally forced
away for whatever reason and someone else had to go into their workspace, it was shocking what would be found. Of course, it meant those
people knew they had something to hide and worried that they'd be found out, and therefore made sure they were always around when others
were around. I even had an employee who got found out in this manner, though what she was hiding wasn't overly critical and certainly not
criminal, yet it was a concern. So, I finally decided that, unlike my dad, who almost never took even a day off in his 26 years in the service,
I would take a week off, just to see what it was like, and to prove that I not only had nothing to hide, but that I had trained my supervisors to
such a degree that I could be away and they could answer any questions that came up.
Anyway, it would seem to be that this upper level manager has always wondered why none of the employees has ever spoken to him other
than saying hello, and said he would welcome their questions and having some interaction with them. So, we're going to be setting up a
meeting so that he can officially meet the entire staff for the very first time ever. That's shocking to me, but, as I said, I can understand
how it can happen. For businesses to run properly the walls of separation have to be flexible enough to allow some crossover, even if most
of the time it's a brief interaction. One doesn't want their employees to always be going over their head, but at the same time if one doesn't
have anything to hide; they want their employees to be able to speak to those folks about anything on their minds.
Breaking down the barriers to communication and information. Changing attitudes and perceptions for unlimited growth. And that's only
after two weeks. I wonder what's yet to come; I wonder what you'll be doing on Monday.