Management

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The Advantage in the Waste Industry

The Invisible Spotlight: Why Managers Cant Hide

Craig Wasserman and Doug Katz

Two principles are at the heart of your management relationships. Become aware of them, adhere to them and youll join The ranks of The mosT successful and respecTed managers in The indusTry.

No matter what maNagemeNt role you play in the waste industry, you can be certain of one thing: Your employees talk about you at dinner. The meal is placed on the table, and your employees significant other asks the fateful question, How was work today, dear? The next words are about you. Sometimes directly, sometimes indirectly. Either way, theyre about you: It was great today; my boss was out at a conference. It was really aggravating; the boss was at an allday meeting and left no one in charge. It was aggravating; she was at a training class and left Larry in charge. Excellent day; I finished the recycling review ahead of schedule, and my boss was all over me with gratitude. As a manager, you work in the constant glare of an invisible spotlight. When you come, where you

go and what you do in between are of the utmost importance to your employees. Yet, the most frequent and fundamental mistake managers make is to underestimate their impact. Managers invariably fail to recognize the influence they exert over their employees lives. They fail to recognize how vital their management relationships are. It all boils down to an inescapable truth: If the foundation of the management relationship is solid, its because the manager is doing something right. If the foundation falters or fails, it is because the manager is doing something wrong. Its that simple and that difficult. Two principles are at the heart of your management relationships. Become aware of them, adhere to them and youll join the ranks of the most successful and respected managers in the industry.

Principle #1: The Burden of the Management Relationship is Yours

Think about the balance of responsibility in a healthy manager-employee relationship. Would you say its 50/50, with each of you contributing equally to the relationships success? How about 60/40, with one or the other assuming a greater load? Too many managers, new and seasoned, step into their role assuming the relationship is a 50/50 affair, and this begins their slide into ineffectiveness. Their problem is that they want to apply the ideals of equality and shared responsibility. They act as if theyre still employees or colleagues. But while these ideals are important to the longevity of most relationships, they just dont apply to the professional management of employees. The management relationship is not like most others. Its unique because of the obligations that accompany it and the fact that it exists within an organizational hierarchy. In this unusual relationship, the responsibility for creating a durable foundation isnt 50/50, and thats because the balance of power isnt 50/50. It isnt a marriage. It isnt a friendship. You and your employees arent siblings, classmates or business partners. In fact,

Phils PeoPle Problem

A national waste companys regional vice president of operations asked me to spend a day on site with Phil, a district manager in a midwest city, who managed more than 230 employees for his company. Phil was wrapping up his first year at the helm, and by all business measuresrevenue, cost control, safety, routing efficiencies, process improvements, record keeping and customer satisfaction Phils first year was a success. But the regional VP had detected a few murmurs about Phils management style during his own trips to the district. Because Phil was so promising, the VP wanted to nip any stylistic problems in the bud. He knew that Phils success could unravel quickly under the burden of an erratic, dictatorial or indifferent management approach. I spent an early morning hour with Phil before meeting anyone else and explained my role: Phil, Im a management consultant. My job is to hold up a mirror that reflects the impact youre having on your organization and to show you where you can make improvements. So Ill take a snapshot today. Ill share my impressions with you at the end of the day along with my best advice. At 4 p.m., after a day of formal interviews, casual conversations and many observations, Phil and I reconvened for our debriefing. After I presented his achievements, I moved the conversation to Phils management style. I explained that in his enthusiasm to turn the organization around and to surpass corporate standards, hed taken no prisoners. The word in the hallways was that Phil had no patience, his ideas were the only viable ones, and he was callous, thoughtless, and intimidating. Several supervisors were actively seeking other jobs. Not surprisingly, these were some of Phils best and most promising. My message should have been tough for Phil to digest. But when I finished, Phil reflected a moment and said, Youre not telling me anything I dont already know. My family has been telling me these things for years. I dont suffer fools well. Thats just the way I am. I had to respect the guy for his candor. But his self-acceptance was self-destructive. Phil, weve just come to the reason your VP sent me here. He didnt give you this job so you could be the way you am. He gave it to you with the expectation that you would be a professional leader. Those are far from the same thing. I continued, At this company, youre expected to work at being a manager. Youre the guy responsible for making these relationships work, not driving them into the turf. Youre the guy who has to develop these supervisors into confident captains, not shadows of themselves, limping away for safe harbor. Youre the guy who has to establish an atmosphere that encourages best efforts, not one that exposes vulnerabilities and insecurities. Being an effective manager is your job. Its a set of skills that needs to be mastered. In this regard, youre failing. In the months following, we worked together at his request on his management approach. He learned to create those pivotal moments that are the foundation of the management relationship, rather than relying on his own reflexes. He began to allow others to succeed and err more on their own and to learn from both. He learned that listening to his employees was as important as taking a phone call from his corporate office. He learned that his natural impatience was a virtue so long as it served to energize, not humiliate. And most important, he came to appreciate that his employees wanted to please him; he needed to master the art of making that possible for them.
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the Invisible Spotlight: why managers Cant hide

despite what some management gurus would have you believe, youre not even teammates. In this unusual relationship, you shoulder a disproportionate burden for the foundation. To say you shoulder as much as 80 percent would not be an overstatement. And guess what: your employees dont want it to be any different. No matter how it may seem, no matter how you may want it, your employees dont want your friendship. They want your leadership. Once you accept this fundamental burden, you then have to take into account what you bring to the invisible spotlight and whether your natural ways are always the best ways to conduct yourself in its glare.

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It takes a lot more than just being yourself. Weve all known managers who are naturally overbearing, glib, emotionally volatile, tightly wound, scattered, over-intellectual, perfectionistic, intolerant of criticism or fearful of The Advantage in the Waste Industry hurting anyones feelings. The litany of instinctive but destructive qualities that managers inflict on employees is endless. Whats stunning is how unaware most managers are of their impact in the invisible spotlight. And when this impact is brought to their attention by a boss, a colleague, an employee or a consultant, so many say, Oh yeah. Ive been hearing that all my life. Thats just the way I am.

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Principle #2: Managerial Self-Acceptance Can Be Self-Destructive

So many managers make the unconscious assumption that how they are as people is how they can and should be as managers. Without giving it much thought, they figure that developing professional relationships with their employees takes no more forethought and practice than working with colleagues or having dinner with friends on a Saturday night. Its the Just Be Yourself theory. Its an example of when self-acceptance can be selfdefeating. Managers spend their days in an invisible spotlight. They are being watched by their employees and being talked about at dinner. Their actions exert an enormous influence on the performance and spirit of their staff. To be capable and credible, every manager has to consciously hone the assets that strengthen his impact and find a place to shelve the liabilities that do damage.

What It Takes
Managers who are self-observant, willing to learn and improve as a result of their mistakes are much better at forging productive relationships with their employees. Their relationships have far fewer unspoken anxieties, annoyances, expectations and disappointments. However, it takes two things to achieve this in the heat of the invisible spotlight: 1) accepting responsibility for the foundation of the relationship and 2) playing the management role consciously. The role demands constant self-awareness and deliberate self-development.
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Craig Wasserman and Doug Katz have been consulting to managers and organizations for 35 years. Over that time, theyve consulted extensively to the waste industry. You can reach them at cw@wassermankatz.com and dk@wassermankatz.com. This article was adapted from the book, The Invisible Spotlight: Why Managers Cant Hide available on www.amazon.com. For more information, visit www. invisiblespotlight.com.

2012 Waste Advantage Magazine, All Rights Reserved. Reprinted from Waste Advantage Magazine. Contents cannot be reprinted without permission from the publisher.