Breaking Barriers

Scenario:  Not a true story but needed to get a Point of View.

You work for a company where generations of family have been working.  Your entire family, friends, acquaintances—it is a large business for your town. You’ve been working with this company for 30 years, and you have come up through the ranks.  You are now a Manager.  In this business, you build diesel engines for a living. Everything you know, you have learned through blood, sweat, and limited formal training if any at all. 

You find your crew struggling with a diesel engine that is already beyond its estimated delivery date to one of your major customers.  The engine repairs aren’t going well, and your crew has worked 40% overtime to get the job done.  They are stressed.  You jump in, roll up your sleeves, and start to help.  You are now knee deep into this work, 16 hours of wrench turning yourself.

In walks a young man.  He has been with in the business for just a few years now.  Good reputation.  Hard worker.  Recently transferred to your shop.  He walks up to the jobsite, and asks if he can help.  Your patience is thin, you turn and snap a little saying something along the lines of, “You don’t have enough time at the company to be of any help, go back to your list of jobs I gave you and just focus on those.”  He walks away, mumbling.  You are overheard saying to your crew, “These new guys just don’t get it.  I remember when I used to have to hand out tools, working my way up.  These new guys can’t just come in and work the hard stuff.  They need to earn their stripes.  Can you even believe him?  Walking in here thinking we can’t fix this?  I’ve been doing this longer than he has been alive......” 

As Paul Harvey used to say, “and now for the rest of the story”.  This young man’s last name happens to be Cummins.  His family lineage has been in design, development, and implementation of Diesel engines.  His family has always had their children work “in the real world” before coming into the family business.  He has built and repaired diesels before he was standing.

What is wrong here?  First, why is the Manager knee-deep in the work?  If he is fixing things vice training and using this time to teach his crew, he is missing a great opportunity to help with the development of his team.  He should always be training his replacement, and they theirs.  This way you develop a team so that when one person is sick, quit, gone, whatever the case, then your team continues to move forward without a loss.

Second.  You may know 95% of everything.  But you are not complete without that last 5%.  The young man in this scenario may know only 5%, but it may be the 5% you are missing.  DaVinci’s Mona Lisa is just an ugly woman without that smile.  That’s the 5%.  Allow input from your employees.  Sometimes we just need even the strangest of ideas, offers, and questions from our people to trigger a new thought process.  You may have been just doing donuts in your mind. (Looks really cool but you are going nowhere).  

Third.  Know your people.  Know their strengths.  Why do we continue to place people in jobs we need, vice in jobs where they offer the most value?

Lastly. Get your ego out of the workplace.  Just because someone hasn’t earned their stripes within your “club” does not mean they have no value.  In fact, if everyone still thought that way, we would never have the technology that we have today.  We would have remained in the caveman days.  New does not equal dumb.  Period.  What you are really saying is that you are afraid of possible change.  Truth.

I look forward to open communications about leadership and management.