Follow Through

Yesterday's post contained the thoughts of Matt McLaughlin as he focused on a personal negative trait. Today's post was written by a manufacturing operations manager who wishes to remain anonymous. Like Matt she is focusing on a personal negative trait and I reprint her work with permission.

"The trait that I feel causes me the most difficulty in performing my job is 'Does what he/she says they will do,' driven in large part by another deficiency: 'Regularly monitors progress and results.' I do well at assigning task, but lack the follow through on pushing it through and coming through on items that are left up to me.

"For example, I assigned a task of coming up with a plan to monitor our lubricants to avoid running out. The employee devised a plan that in the end required a work instruction and training of all employees to adhere to the system. Six weeks later, the plan is still sitting on my desk and I have yet to issue a work instruction. I assigned the task but didn't hold up on my end of the deal.

"I feel this has a very negative effect on the people who came up with the plan and threatens their confidence in me to follow through on what I needed to do. I can only imagine that if I don't improve in this area, the employees will begin to stop doing the tasks I assign because they will think that I won't review it when they are done, so why bother? In addition, because the lubrication plan I asked for is still not issued we still face a threat of running out because I haven't completed my tasks to finish the roll out of the procedure.

"The actions I will take in the future to strengthen my skills and improve in this area are as follows:

1. When appropriate, assign tasks/projects one at a time so I allow myself the time to review each one. Only at the close/completion of one task will I assign another.

2. When a task/project is forwarded to me for review and items are left undone, work with the team leader to have them assign the remaining tasks - rather than taking them on myself.

3. When a task is remaining and the team members are unable to complete them because it is out of their scope of ability (i.e., the work instruction for managing the lubrication area), I will delegate it to someone else inside my team of resources.

4. Ask the person in charge of the team to assign me the task and manage me as part of their team. Admit to them that this is an area that I struggle with (completing tasks on time), and that I'm going to need to be managed to ensure I complete my responsibilities. Turn it into a project management lesson for them, and help me with my follow through at the same time.

5. Get some quick wins! I think most of my faults in this area come from taking on too many things at once, and not setting realistic goals as to when they will be completed. For those reasons, many tasks go unfinished and are so past due that I don't take them seriously, or worse yet, there is no real expectation from anyone that I will get them done! I will evaluate any unfinished tasks sitting on my desk and approach them one at a time - picking the ones that require the least time and effort to complete. I hope that I will soon realize they are all achievable and get some motivation to continue completing them all (rather than looking at the pile on a daily basis and feeling overwhelmed)!"

Dan says: Thanks for the sharing. I especially like number 4 above. Not only does it help you, but it also expands the capabilities of team members.

About me: Dan Pelley offers a series of five programs leading to a Certificate in Supervisory Management. The five programs are "Managing People,: "Leadership Skills," "Managing For Results," "Proactive Leadership," and "Participative Management." 139 companies in Connecticut (CT), Rhode Island (RI), Massachusetts (MA) and New York have one or more people who earned this certificate.

Copyright © 2009 Daniel W. Pelley
All rights reserved.