Middlemen

Middlemen can be a recipe for failure. This will sound a bit hypocritical coming from someone who makes a living off being a Middle Manager (MM) - but I've learned more and more both for myself and for others I work with, that I need to get out of the way whenever possible.

What I mean is this - communication is not easy. Details, nuances, tone, timeframe, scope, budget, costs, the list goes on and on...all of this is incredibly difficult to communicate well to other people, even in the best of circumstances. For example, even if you're sitting face-to-face with someone and have hours to talk through all the facts, you can still leave a meeting with miscommunications in play. Add the difficulty of email and phone, and the issues multiply. Then add middlemen in between yourself and the end-recipient, and issues sky rocket.

So here's how I try to look at it - whether working with a vendor, client, third-party, or even co-workers, if you or someone else is in the way of clean, solid communication taking place, try and put together a model where this can be expedited or bypassed. If you're relaying messages in between a co-worker and your boss, get all 3 of you in a room together and talk through the issue at hand with all parties present - you'll skip the back and forth. If you're working with a third-party who is insisting on relaying info to the end-recipient, insist on getting that end-recipient on the call with you and the third-party. If you're working with a client and ALL decision-makers are not involved in your discussions, insist that you have ALL decision-makers involved.

Not everyone will like this approach, so be prepared for some resistance. There will also be some cases where this is just not possible, no matter how hard you insist. Still, insist until you are told "no way, no how".

Bottom line: don't just accept the status quo of allowing middlemen structures to prevent the best results. Insist on changing this norm and it'll make a huge difference - one that people will take note of.

Operations = Results = Operations

I'm an Operations guy, which makes it easy to talk about how something "should" work. But it's best to always start with one central point - what are the results? Results don't lie, they can't be debated about, and they are not personal (they are facts).

There are a few main types of results I focus on - Customers, Co-Workers, & Cash.

Customers: What are your customers saying about your process, the fulfillment of your obligations, your customer service, etc? Their feedback is priceless, and gives you a true look at what reality is, even when something may "feel" good internally. The customer may not be always right, but they're definitely in the 90th percentile.

Co-Workers: What do your fellow co-workers say about you? Its hard to know for sure if your company doesn't have some sort of company-wide evaluation that allows for more than just your boss to evaluate the job you do. So if you don't have something like that in place where you work, just start asking people. Let folks know you just want to improve what you do and how you do it and would love any insights they have into what makes it difficult to work with you, if there areas you can improve in, etc. Be prepared to get feedback you may not like though! Still, this is invaluable to working well with your team and improving the end results.

Cash: How profitable of a job are you doing? This one is pure black and white and gets right to results. If you are working on a project, its more than just a matter of whether the job was completed and billed - but was it actually profitable for your company? If it wasn't, is that because it was mis-quoted, mis-managed, etc? The dollar signs will stare you right in the face and are an easy way to see if the results are what they should be.

Keeping those three in mind, creating systems and processes should always be in a cyclical pattern of implementation => evaluation, revisions, implementation, evaluation, revisions, and so on. Bottom line: results should lead decisions.

The Road to Efficiency

Efficiency is more than just managing systems, budgets, and timetables. Efficiency is also about managing people.

It may not be as scientific, but if you ignore people, you'll find yourself in a mess at the end of a project (I know I always do).

Here's the path I try and follow - in ascending order:

3.) Expectation Management: If you're going to be efficient, you've got to constantly (at least once a week) update clients and/or your boss on the status of where something is in progress, when you need key items from them, how its effecting the overall deadline, when they can expect to see the next milestone from you, if and how scope may have creeped (see previous post on scope creep), and so on. Let them know what to expect before they ask for it.

2.) Communication: If you want to do #3 well, then you've got to first be in the habit of communicating well. Good communication involves a lot of things - being consistent, helpful, timely, & proactive (just to name a few). Communicate well, and you'll be better prepared to manage people's expectations.

1.) Caring: And last, if you want to do #2 well, you've got to actually care about what you're doing and who you're doing it for if you're going to have enough fuel to communicate well and mean it.

To sum up - if you care, you'll see to it that good communication happens. And if you communicate well, you'll set the stage for expectation management to take place.

If you're doing all 3 of these things in progression, you'll find yourself with much more than just an efficient process, you'll find yourself with partners.

Processes assume there is a box. You have to do more than manage in a box.

My Needs or Theirs?

So the other day I got an email from a vendor - one that I had been very upset with re: what I considered to be an unresolved situation. Its probably been a good 6 months since the situation occurred, but still - it left an impression.

My plan was to never do work with that vendor again based on that negative experience. I'll say that I probably could have been won back over with a lot of apologies, proof that it would never happen again, etc. Instead, what I did get was an email asking me to have a meeting with this company to let them present products that we may want to consider for our clients.

That just solidified my feelings about them. Here was my response to their request:

We've got a pretty full schedule this week, and honestly, I still remember how we were treated with the whole misprint issue the other year. That left a pretty good sting that I never felt was properly resolved. Hate to say it, but it left a mark! Thanks for checking in. Best, Dustin

As much as I was irritated by their email and the further responses that ensued, I did come away with a valuable lesson - as MMs, we should never send our clients emails or calls out of the blue when we want something. All relationships are back and forth's, so its fine to "sell" another service or product to your client, but we need to tip the scale in the favor of our clients, and make them feel a 2 to 1 ratio of always being given more value than they're spending or being "sold". The relationship should be more than just about the next thing we can sell.

Bottom line - Its about their needs, not ours.