One crew leader told us how he had to watch over his team all the time. For example, each morning he would get to the company early so he could monitor his crew as they loaded supplies for the day's job. He said that if he didn't do that, they would certainly miss something needed on the job with the result that someone had to make a trip back to get what they needed. He also talked about how he had to watch over his crew every hour of the day to make sure they were doing things correctly. If not, they would do the work incorrectly resulting in additional labor and materials to correct the mistakes.
Another crew leader listened intently to the conversation but had nothing to say. But he certainly had a big grin on his face. I finally asked "Why the big grin?" "Well." he said, "he and I take a much different approach to our crews. I never go in to check my crew when they are loading the truck for the day's job. They know I expect them to arrive on the job on time with all the tools and materials they need for the day. They also know that I don't want to stand over them all day making sure they do their job. I expect them to do their job. I pay them to do their job. If they need help or have a question I'm always there for them. But it is their job and I expect them to do it.
"Please don't misunderstand me. I don't tolerate laziness, incompetence, slacking off or poor quality. They know that. They also know that I respect the work ethic and technical skills they bring to my jobs. They are professional roofers and I treat them as such when they work for me.
"I know the other crew chief doesn't see things the way I do. And that's his choice. It's not my place to criticize him. But I've been sitting here listening and smiling because I simply don't have the problems he does."
The interesting thing about this conversation is that the members of each crew are interchangeable depending on the size of each job. So it was very common for a roofer to work for one crew leader this week and for the other next week. Yet each crew chief has different expectations and get different results.
This case is a good example of the Pygmalion effect. As a well-established concept in human behavior, the Pygmalion effect says what we expect from other people is pretty much what we are going to get.
About me: Dan Pelley is an educator specializing in management training and development programs for supervisors and other first-line managers in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island. The discussion recited above came from a company sponsored (in-house) program held in Rhode Island.
Copyright © 2009 Daniel W. Pelley
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