Oatmeal and the Missing Manager

A recent meal reminded me of the opportunity to step up and capture the moment!

“Have you been waiting long?” asked the bartender.

She’d walked over after noticing I had been standing at the host stand for a while. “About 10 minutes,” I answered. The place was hardly busy: only two tables were occupied. “One of your staff looked me in the eye three times, but decided to wipe tables instead.”

“I’m sorry,” she sighed. “We don’t have a manager. Nobody gets trained around here. Someone will be over to take your order shortly, I hope.”

That was breakfast, Saturday at a full-service restaurant in the biggest airport in America. But it wasn’t anything new; just another in a long line of moments with businesses where it’s increasingly clear that:

Nobody’s steering the ship towards success!

It reminded me of our industry, where so many companies leave the customer experience to chance, hoping “independent” contractors will win the admiration and loyalty of consumers in a very competitive marketplace.

“But we can’t tell them what to do,” I’ve been told for more than 33 years.

Sitting in that restaurant, I recalled the time when I was served a bowl of uncooked oatmeal and thought: Imagine how amazing this place would be if they still believed that great management mattered.

Let me tell you a story.

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The Effects of Great Management © Matthew Ferrara

Mini Presidents

It’s President’s Day week, so I thought it would be helpful to thank all the “mini-presidents” who make our careers better.

We call them Managers.

They come in all shapes and sizes. They keep an eye on how things are running and watch for ways to continually improve. They used to be a central part of the process — organizing, implementing and fine-tuning our work. Managers were that special place where meeting the customer’s needs connected with growth opportunities for employees. But most of all, managers have always made a difference because there’s a limit to how much “self-directing” and “self-learning” anyone can achieve — even the most motivated of us.

Managers help us see the forest for the trees.

“Oatmeal and the Missing Manager”

Let me tell you the story of a funny experience I had at a diner years ago.

A waiter placed a bowl of half-cooked, dry, flaky oatmeal in front of me. I couldn’t believe my eyes. When I stuck a spoon in, it was completely dry. A few slightly moist clumps of cooked grains stuck together. How was it possible that the second-simplest thing to serve in a diner (after coffee) could get from the kitchen, past the waiter, to my table like this?

So I asked to speak to the manager.

I was told there wasn’t a manager available.

At first, I thought this was a “difficult conversation technique” to keep whiney patrons from bothering the manager with every little thing. But then I looked around and realized:

It was true. There wasn’t a manager to be found in the whole place.

I shrugged. This wasn’t the first time I noticed the lack of management presence in modern businesses. If there’s a long line at the coffee shop while people are busily stocking napkins, there’s no manager around. When the check-in line at the hotel extends out the door but voices laugh in the back office, there’s no manager around. When patient records lie in the open at the doctor’s office, but nobody is sitting at the front desk, you know….

Oh, you know it!

Wherever there’s no coordination, no anticipation, no attention paid to how things are done — there’s no manager around.

Somehow, the beancounters have ruined the business of good business.

I’m just guessing, but I suspect the spreadsheet types made a presentation somewhere along the line that showed management was an unnecessary cost. I can see their PowerPoint slides promising that new employees would “train themselves” or software would provide reports or self-study videos (or artificial intelligence) would do it cheaper —

Except that it can’t. It hasn’t. And it won’t, not even for assembly-line jobs.

Meanwhile, a great many customers are being fed dry oatmeal.

You Know it When You See It

What’s the big deal, you ask? What do managers add that can’t be seen on production reports? Don’t many industries (for example, real estate) want people “independently” running around and somehow making it all work? Besides, don’t salespeople want to do their own thing (and keep all the money instead)?

Actually, no. That’s not how it works at all.

Because at the most “independent” firms in the business, great managers are present. And the most “independent” salespeople leverage their managers a lot — so much so they’re willing to pay third-parties to manage/coach/guide them when a manager isn’t otherwise provided.

Deep down, we all know that management matters.

Why do great managers make for great work?

Three important reasons:

• Managers set the agenda beyond the “job responsibilities.” They help the sum-of-the-parts exceed the individual pieces, by setting the direction, sharing the stories, modeling the behaviors, and pointing out the opportunities/problems in real time. Managers transform “independent” people into “interdependent” teams so the rising tide can lift all boats.