Want to Be a Great Manager? Don’t Practice ‘Off The Rack’ Management

Michel Theriault
Thu, 30 Jan 2014 00:00:00 +0000

In a previous article about the dangers of treating all of your employees the same, I mentioned the term “off the rack” management. It’s a simple concept that applies to management in general. Like your employees, no two situations are exactly alike and usually requires customized solutions, not “off the rack” solutions. That’s the lazy, cookie-cutter approach and not the way a great manager is made.

To customize your approach, take the management and leadership techniques you learned, read about, or were told to do and don’t simply apply them -- carefully consider how to apply them.

Decide what adjustments to make for each specific situation. It takes more effort, but it’s worth it in the long run.

Here are three areas where you should stop using “off the rack” management and customize your approach:

Holding Meetings

Meetings are often run using a strict formula. Develop your objective, write an agenda, start the meeting, review the minutes from previous meetings, run through each of the items on your agenda, open up the floor for new business, and conclude your meeting.

But not all meetings are the same. The standard formula might work well for standard meetings, but if you really think of the purpose of each of the meetings you attend or organize, you’ll see that they often differ significantly. They have very different outcome objectives and need different approaches to meet those objectives.

Always look at the outcome objectives and then redesign your meeting approach accordingly. You may do away with a lengthy agenda, hold shorter meetings, and focus on a single topic using a whiteboard or flip charts.

Rather than simply opening discussion on a given point, you might put forward an option and use a brainstorming exercises to find a solution. In another meeting you may need an extra facilitator to help walk through the meeting so you can participate fully instead of having to manage the meeting.

Maybe you need to get someone from a different department to help and act out a situation or be the devil’s advocate as you work through an issue or solution.

The next time you organize a meeting, mix it up a little and customize your approach.

Hiring Staff

This is another area where standardized approaches are usually applied, partly to minimize risk associated with hiring practices. Sometimes minimizing the risk also minimizes future results, which can far outweigh those risks if you don’t hire the right person.

Your HR department probably has standardized processes of reviewing resumes, conducting phone interviews, holding in-person interviews, and more. They may even have standardized interview questions that everybody is asked.

This may work for many positions, but you may be hiring for a position where this approach simply doesn’t fit. The approach to selecting the right salesperson is very different from selecting an administrative assistant or technician.

The questions need to be different, the process should be different, and the decision-making approach should be different.

For the technician, you may give them a hands-on problem and asked them to work through it. For the salesperson, you can simulate a sales meeting and see how they perform. The admin assistant could be given administrative tasks to accomplish.

In addition, you need a different way of evaluating the softer qualities. For some positions, a formal across-the-desk interview, perhaps with several people from your organization, may work best. For other positions, a casual lunch meeting may be better.

For the next position you need to fill, take a close look at your standard approach and see what needs to change to maximize your chances of hiring exactly the right person. When working with your HR department, have the self-confidence to do things differently -- after all, you will be responsible for the new employee’s performance.

Managing Staff

As a manager, the easiest and seemingly fairest way is to treat everybody who works for you the same. But everyone is different. Performance, morale, job satisfaction, and even retention require different approaches with different employees.

Beyond the items discussed in my previous article Managers: Don’t Treat All Employees the Same Way, there are many other issues surrounds the management of staff that need to be customized.

One example is when an employee asks if they can start their workdays earlier so they can leave a little earlier for personal reasons, such as child care. If it doesn't interfere with processes and other schedules, you should consider accommodating the employee, assuming performance is maintained.

Don't base your decision on whether other people may ask for the same thing. If they ask, you should treat their request on their own merits and be able to defend your decision.

The easy “off-the-rack” way is to simply say no, but then you may have an employee too stressed out about getting to their daycare provider on time every night and not as focused on the work you want them to do.

Modern office accommodations present a similar problem, usually with every employee with the same job level given the same cubicle size, desk chair, etc. Yet different positions, even at the same level, can require different office space needs.

It’s easy to simply quote the office standards and say no when one of your staff asks for a larger cubicle with a small table and two chairs, for instance. It’s harder-- yet better -- to examine the reasons and the benefits for granting the request and going outside the company standards if needed. The employee may receive customers or even vendors frequently and would be better able to negotiate with a different workspace layout.

Both of these examples may make it a little more difficult to manage a team. You’ll have to defend your position and it may open you up to additional requests. But that’s why this isn’t a safe, lazy management style -- customizing your approach to management may require more effort, but the results can be much better for your team and your company.