Managers who are convinced that they don’t have time to manage almost always spend a lot of time managing people. That’s because when a manager avoids spending time in advance to make sure everything is going well, something almost always goes wrong. Small problems pile up and grow until they become so big that they can no longer be ignored. At that point, the manager has no choice but to identify and resolve the problems.
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These managers are running around solving problems that never had to happen, trying to control major issues that should have been easily solved, recovering wasted resources, dealing with long-standing performance problems, and finding themselves even more pressed for time. to feel. In all likelihood, they will go right back to managing on autopilot, and the next time they make time for more involved management will be the next time there is another major problem that needs to be identified and resolved.
Management in firefighting mode
Some call this ‘management in firefighting mode’. Unfortunately, the vast majority of managers spend an inordinate percentage of their management time on firefighting, solving one pressing problem after another – usually problems that could have been avoided with better planning, or that could have been more easily identified and resolved at an earlier time could have been.
As any manager will tell you, firefighting is part of the job. It is very difficult to break the cycle because if there is an urgent problem, it simply needs to be addressed. Things go wrong: fires start. If you are the supervisor, you are in charge, which means you are in charge of firefighting. But it is usually difficult and time-consuming work. By the time you’re done, you’ll be way behind on all the other work you should have done.
Why so many managers end up in the vicious circle
The vast majority of managers manage more or less on autopilot until something goes wrong, which almost always does. When something goes wrong, the communication becomes more intense and urgent, which may work at the time, but doesn’t address the bigger problem.
Managers tell us all the time, “Everything is going great. It’s just that we have to put out a lot of fires and that makes it very difficult to develop a good routine. If you have a good routine, a fire will soon start again.”
What they don’t realize is that they are stuck in a vicious circle of undermanagement:
- Managing on autopilot leads to…
- A false sense of security, which means…
- Small problems have a chance to fester and grow, so eventually…
- Those small problems turn into big problems, forcing the manager to…
- Get everyone into firefighting mode, then…
- Everything returns to normal and the manager works on autopilot.
And the cycle starts all over again.
How do you break the vicious circle? Those regular one-on-ones are your fire prevention, preparation and training. That’s where the real impact happens. Not in the ‘crucial conversations’, but rather in the routine conversations. First, you need to make those routine conversations much, much better.
That’s it. Just the back-to-basics fundamentals – practiced consistently and with accuracy and discipline.
