Balancing Concern for People and Concern for Results
In the final episode of their COVID series, Kris and Leanne discuss performance management and how to monitor productivity during a time of COVID-related challenges. They introduce the Blake and Mouton leadership grid, which helps managers balance their concern for people and work, and emphasize the importance of self-awareness and clear communication in managing staff. They also offer tips for finding comfortable language to have conversations around getting work done, and checking in with direct reports to ensure that they have the resources they need.
Hi Kris, hey Leanne, how's it going? It's going good welcome, everybody. This is the last episode of our covid series. We'll be doing a lot more in the future, but this is the last episode for courageous conversations for leaders and organizations around covid today. We're going to talk about performance management and how to monitor productivity
00:00:23
In the time of covid yeah so there's a lot of pressure on managers at this point; it's interesting because we have to be flexible with our staff in terms of covert considerations, and that's everything related to technology being at home with family taking care of children all of those things but also the work is still needing to get done there's a lot of work
00:00:47
there might even be more work during covid, so it's a question of how we do both as managers so hard. Such a dilemma, and I know I'm hearing that from a lot of people I work with. Some of the leaders I'm working with really are understanding. They are flexible, but things indeed need to get turned in
00:01:08
You know customers need to be served and so let me throw out a story real quick so we can make this real I've had a client I don't know a way ways back that asked for a report and assumed that that communication made it through to the person and then it didn't get delivered that day that same day in the evening
00:01:34
And so she was wondering, you know what's, what can she do, you know, with this to support this employee and that it had been an ongoing problem that things were getting turned in late as far as she was concerned and then asked her what have you done to specifically communicate the exact day and the exact time that you wanted that report or those reports
00:01:59
And a light bulb went off for her. She had not said specifically what day or time she needed it back. She assumed the employee knew it was urgent and due that day because of her style and mindset. Her way of being is that whenever anyone asks her for anything, she turns it around right away. If she can get it out that day, she gets it out
00:02:24
That day so it was a big aha for her to think that not everybody operates that way, and she realized I need to go have a conversation with that person, and I need to be more clear with them, you know, so Leanne, I have a great concept, that I'd like to share with you and everybody it's called the Blake and Mouton leadership grid, and I'm going to share just for a couple
00:02:52
Of couple minutes, the okay so everyone can take a look at it, and yep, this is a model that was developed after researching and working with thousands of managers and leaders by two researchers by the name of Blake and Bhutan, and what they came up with was a synthesis of the best kind of leadership but what 0
0:03:15
They looked at two very important dimensions, which were a concern for people and concern for results which is also concerned for the work and the tasks at hand. If you look at the top left, the country club manager has a high degree of concern for people but a low degree of concern for the work. Right, we might like to work for someone that's a country club manager
00:03:38
But if they don't get very much work done and their upline management sometimes gets discouraged with them now the bottom left impoverished management, there's low concern for both for work and for people nothing gets done, but nobody's very happy probably very low morale in an organization with management like this
00:04:01
Bottom right is producer parish management which is a very high degree of concern for the work but low related to people, so this type of manager can get a lot of work done, but they tend to have a lot of turnovers now when we go up to the top right which is team management which is this wonderful formula of the high degree of concern for people and
00:04:27
A high degree of concern for the work this is the best place for leaders and managers to operate from now it's not like you can do it all the time 100 percent, but this is a goal and one of the tips that I wanted to offer everybody today was related to being aware of this model and being aware of yourself
00:04:48
As a leader and manager, about where you typically fall, at least when you're at your best. You might examine it for where you fall, maybe when you're stressed, but it can give you some target about what does work best in terms of managing people and getting work done, so this team management philosophy is the best place, and that's your target
00:05:11
I love this model, Kris. This is a good model because it's simple and just has so much information in it, and it's so helpful was wondering about the country club manager, and I know there are a lot of leaders who, while they're well-liked, are getting a lot done because they're doing it all maybe not
00:05:36
Doing it all, but they're doing a lot of things for their direct reports that maybe they shouldn't, but they like to because they feel like they want to be helpful and supportive. What do you have to say about that? Yeah, that is a major consideration because if you are the manager and you are trying to be yourself, maybe you think you're a team player.
00:05:59
So you're going to jump in and do the work. In fact, you might be doing more work than you need, and you might be doing work that your staff should be doing. That's one way to think about it. Potentially you're exhausted all the time because you're doing your work plus some of their work. It reminds me of a time when I was at imo villas hickory pit. This was
00:06:20
Probably in the 1980s, there was a moment when I was standing there I was watching two bus boys were standing there, and they were talking and looking, and what they were doing was they were watching the manager bus the tables, and so the manager was out on the dining floor busting the tables the bus boys were standing back watching the manager do this
00:06:46
And I thought, you know, the manager had that sense that they were watching, he would probably turn around and been quite frustrated, so there's it. It isn't kind of a slippery slope when managers try to do a little bit too much. They can get exhausted. Yeah, that's a good point boundaries balance, you know, overwhelm, overworked, you know
00:07:14
You must think about those things when you're the leader, right? How are you supporting your team exactly in the best way possible well, there's more to talk about that in the future for sure so helpful, and I love that tip self-awareness is the first step because you may be able to be in the team management mode for a lot of the time but when we're under stress
00:07:40
Like in covid and other reasons, sometimes, we aren't always our best, so that self-awareness piece is important to remember. It's something to strive for, so I want to offer a second tip that's around the correct courageous conversation piece of this, and it sort of merges with
00:08:01
Self-awareness asks yourself how clear you are with your direct reports about what you expect to know and whether you are hearing back from them that they truly understand. Do you understand the same thing? If you reflect on the story I shared, you know the leader was looking at it in a certain way, and the direct report was looking at it in a
00:08:27
Totally different way, and you might think that that never happens or that's ridiculous, or I was clear, or it was in writing, but there are many opportunities for miscommunication, so the courageous conversation piece and the tip is to make sure you actually talk about it do you have shared meaning and understanding about what's expected right that's a great tip 00:08:50 And the third and final tip for today is for supervisors to find language that feels comfortable for them in starting conversations around getting the work done that is a shared balance between concern for people and concern for the work and I'll just give a simple example which would be uh let's say I'm talking to you Leanne I'm your supervisor
00:09:14
I might say something like Leanne, I have this task to complete. We must get this XYZ report done, and I want to make sure that you have everything that you need to be able to complete that and be able to answer any questions that you have so I can support you now. This is if you heard the language in there
00:09:37
it's I'm concerned about the work; I'm concerned about supporting you. How can I support you now? This is my language, but I encourage everybody to find their own language because this has to come from a sincere, authentic place for you as a manager; finding language that reflects concern for both work and people will help, and then it becomes more natural over time
00:10:00
That's a great tip also, Kris, and that's something I work with clients a lot on is coming up with their own language to have these kinds of conversations also, if you're not used to checking in with your direct reports from time to time you know don't let too much time pass if you're expecting or you know you worried that the outcome is not going to be on time or the quality you expect.
00:10:26
Don't wait too long before you're checking in and having conversations to support them along the way that supports the mindset you know what they need. Yeah, and I like sometimes I call that getting closer to work, which means that you're getting closer to the person as they're doing the work, and it could be a matter of having specific check-ins let's say, hey Leanne, why, don't you put
00:10:50
Some time on my calendar tomorrow. Let's check in and see how things are going and if you can outline what you think needs to be in that report. Okay, that's me saying let's take a look at the work, and it gives us another opportunity to talk about it and make sure I want to make sure I'm clear. I want to make sure that you lean have an
00:11:09
Opportunity to share your thoughts on the work product. That's so great, Kris and I want to point out that that's not micromanaging, and I think that there's a lot of confusion about what micromanaging is, and there is a difference between micromanaging and a coaching style of leadership, and so we are going to not talk about that today, but we will talk about that
00:11:31
In a future episode because I know it's a gray area, and it's a worry that a lot of people have, so stay tuned for that, and I can't wait to thank you so much. It's so good to see you. It was good to see you, and I hope everybody got value out of today. So look for us again in the future on another episode bye-bye.
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Post by Dr. Kris Lea
Meet Kris Lea - an experienced consultant, facilitator, and trainer with expertise in OD, OCM, T&D, and Project Management. Kris empowers organizations to overcome challenges and achieve goals. As the founder of Lea Associates LLC, Kris is committed to building long-term client partnerships and delivering exceptional value.
