Multi-Tasking

I have adopted the term “Drive-By Manager” for the manager who spends very little individual time with employees, and prefers to live by the mantra, “if you want something done right, do it yourself.” This type of manager does not empower or develop employees for one of three reasons: 1) they have not been trained, or they do not have the capability to develop people; 2) they have little or no faith in people (lack of trust); or, 3) they find personal value in being “needed” as a manager.

In other words, issuing orders, making decisions, and fixing problems is often what makes the drive-by manager feel valuable, and they have little interest in doing anything other than those things. This is not to imply that these functions are unimportant in the process of managing a company, team, or department, but it is PEOPLE that make managers necessary and valuable.

Now, to multi-tasking: it is commonly understood that, in order to be successful in today’s business environment, a manager MUST be able to multi-task effectively. The ability to juggle multiple projects, deadlines, and individual tasks is the ultimate skill that prepares a person to be promoted to management, right?

Whatever your opinion, this post is not intended to discuss the relative merits of multi-tasking. In fact, it is intended to discuss one of the negative consequences of multi-tasking and that is the failure to focus on individuals.

One of the illustrations that I use in teaching communication skills to managers is this typical office scenario: the manager is in the office doing several things: responding to e-mail messages, waiting on-hold on the office phone, and reviewing a budget report. To complicate matters, the cell phone rings with a call from a customer just as an e-mail from the boss arrives with a reminder that an update on a critical project is due by close-of-business today.

In the middle of this maelstrom, an employee knocks on the door asking for a couple of minutes to discuss an important issue…

What typically happens here? Well, here is a very common response: the manager waves the employee into a chair, hangs up one phone while still on-hold on the other, and begins answering the important e-mail message. The employee hesitantly sits down in the office, and the manager asks, “What is the problem?” Worried that the issue is too important to breeze over and really requires the full attention of the boss, the employee asks about coming back later at a more convenient time. The manager, however, is reassuring and makes every attempt to listen attentively.“Even though we may feel that we are listening very hard, what we are usually doing is listening selectively, with a present agenda in mind, wondering as we listen how we can achieve certain desired results and get the conversation over with as quickly as possible, or redirect it in ways more satisfactory to us.”

M. Scott Peck

For the next few minutes, the employee describes – in between calls and messages – an issue that is troubling her. The manager is acutely aware of a rapidly growing list of tasks that must be completed by day’s end, but tries mightily to focus on the employee while working through a couple of important tasks. Unfortunately, the conversation is interrupted three different times, but finally, after 15 minutes, a hasty resolution to the issue is reached and the employee leaves.

The manager is both relieved and proud; another problem solved – multi-tasking at its best! The employee, on the other hand, arrives back at her desk and concludes that the boss is way too overwhelmed to REALLY care about her or provide a carefully considered solution to a very important problem. She feels devalued and unappreciated, and begins to wonder if she – or her work – is being recognized by the company or the boss.

Does this REALLY happen?? You bet it does. If a manager cannot take time to focus on an employee and communicate “you are important to me” through personal attention, it will inevitably lead to some level of employee disengagement.

The least expensive way to communicate value to employees is to focus on them as an individuals – and listening carefully without interruption is one of the best examples.