Keeping Your Leadership Role – Principle #2

Chad-ley #2:  Don’t Speak Unless You Are Ready To Act

“You have one month to increase production, or I am going to shut you down!”  After about a 15-20 minute discussion, the 20 Slitter Shear crew of four men received this bottom line statement from Mr. Conley.  How serious would these men take this warning?  Was this just another motivational tactic by supervision that they and other departmental employees had heard before?  Would he really shut the operation down when their production was good enough to receive bonus dollars each week on their paychecks?  Hadn’t 29 Slitter Shear crew called the company’s bluff under the previous superintendent?  Everyone would know the answer in just four weeks. 

One month later, the following week’s schedule was posted on the usual Thursday of the previous week. Would 20 Slitter Shear be scheduled their usual Monday – Friday day shift work week?  Every worker in this 135 employee department would look at the schedule not only for their schedule but to see if the company backed down from their threat.  It didn’t take long for the employees to understand that they were working for a superintendent who “didn’t speak unless he was ready to act.” 

The 20 Slitter Shear crew came in unity to the office to ask if there weren’t any orders for their operation.  Mr. Conley heard them and came out to address them.  He said that he had given them four weeks to increase production, but they did not do it.  Therefore, maintenance would begin dismantling their operation so that he could sell it off in pieces.  His last words to these startled men were, “Gentlemen, I don’t play games.  I gave you the opportunity to keep this operation, but you didn’t arise to the charge.  Your seniority will allow you to work other department jobs.”  The most senior employee chose to retire.  The three younger crew members who had to settle for other jobs in the department second guessed their decision to follow the Slitterman’s lead over and over again.

The first principle for retaining a leader’s role was to build trust.  This example teaches us the way you keep that trust.  It is simply, “Be open and  honest.”  Be honest regardless of whether it is popular or not.  Be honest when the organization is facing an uncertain future.  Be honest when no one else is.  Just, “Be honest.”

With this particular company, the union employees in their opinions had not experienced supervision that had been totally open and honest.  Too often, the company simply shut down operations without any warning.  Also, the union employees had received warning after warning but never any consequences for failing to heed to these caveats.  However, now this department’s employees knew they had someone who meant what he said, and someone who was going to be honest whether they liked his decisions or not.  They could trust him when he spoke. 

The Bible states that one can sin in word, deed or thought.  This is probably true in the workplace when it comes to dishonesty. Some acts of dishonesty occur because supervisors fear legal action if they were open and spoke on certain subjects. For example, someone calls to ask about a job opening.  Supervision gives all the details of the job but not the fact that they already know who they are going to hire. Three persons are interviewed, two not knowing they never had a chance.  Is it just OK to excuse this because one feels he/she is forced into this type of dishonesty due to the law? 

Dishonesty in deed occurs often in the workplace when a person is placed in a position as a favor or because the person performed miserably in another job within the company.  Do organizations really believe that the employees are so naïve to believe in these actions?  I know of a school district that would change job descriptions so that only a certain person could meet it.  When speaking with a new board member, I told this person that when Human Resources bring a job description change to the Board that some hard questions should be asked.  The reason for this was because most of the time they have been pressured to change it to meet the already “chosen one” for that position.  After about a year on the Board, a Senior Director who supervised 5 or 6 schools was going to retire.  This position paid over $100,000.  Sure enough, Human Resources brought a job description change to the Board concerning this position.  The Board member asked the hard questions and subsequently convinced the rest of the Board that there was no need for the changes in the job description.  The result – the position was merged with another position (rightfully so) and the taxpayers were rewarded by the elimination of a position that wasn’t necessary.

The first two traits that we have addressed for maintaining the leadership role are not optional.  If both do not exist, the rest of a leader’s words, actions and thoughts are useless.  Nothing else he or she does will cause others to follow his or her lead.