Published June 2005

Just ‘being smart’ isn’t
enough for today’s managers

Q. Our division manager is bright, intellectual and quick at sizing up and dealing with changing situations facing our company and industry. With these attributes, she should have little trouble someday occupying the CEO’s office. Unfortunately, she does not transfer her considerable brain capacity to the nuances of dealing effectively with people. For most of us, an encounter with her leaves us emotionally and physically wiped out. How can we better understand this manager and what’s behind her peculiar conflicts?

A. Your question reminds me of a compelling story I first heard from revered business and human resource consultant Joesph L. Mancusi, founder of the Center for Organizational Excellence.

In the days before direct dialing telephones, when there was one dominant phone company (AT&T, known irreverently as MaBell), two women toiled daily as telephone operator supervisors.

Both were over 50, had worked their entire adult lives for the phone company, never married and even wore their silver-streaked hair tightly rolled into buns. Each managed separate units of operators, mostly young women in their 20s and 30s. Both women were considered highly competent and important contributors to the local company operations.

Yet one manager’s unit consistently outperformed the other’s, and their male bosses couldn’t determine why. Finally, they called on Mancusi to solve the puzzle.

The one difference in the management routine of the women occurred every Thursday morning. One supervisor arrived 30 minutes early with a plate full of freshly baked cookies she offered to her employees. The practice provided a chance for the young women to get to know each other and their boss on a one-to-one basis, Mancusi said. “As a result, the unit became more cohesive and productive.”

The weekly cookie plate was an excellent example of a manager willing to provide employees with a little extra personal touch beyond the bland routine of follow-the-rules, do-it-my-way-or-the-highway managerial attitude.

Managerial “reaching out” is just as important in today’s information-driven, competitive and intensely competitive organizations.

“Intelligence (as measured by IQ tests) accounts for only 20 percent of managerial success, while 80 percent comes from what’s now known as ‘emotional intelligence,’ the ability to effectively connect through excellent communication, listening, conflict resolution, motivation and leadership.

“We all know people who look like they ‘have it,’ but just don’t ‘get it,’ ” Mancusi said.

Here’s another example of emotional intelligence as a management asset:

A supervisor at a data-entry company found herself dealing with a potential “civil war” between a day and night shift. Day workers, mostly working parents, were getting increasingly upset when the night crew, composed mostly of college students, removed computer icons and other “personal” desk objects of the older workers without permission.

The supervisor, realizing that each crew had little or no knowledge or appreciation of the other, prevented an eventual workplace rebellion by bringing together the day and night workers for occasional pizza party socials.

Six weeks after interacting, and appreciating each person’s needs and desires, the “civil war” was averted and production and good feelings soared on both shifts.

The moral of the stories is clear: When hiring and promoting, give plenty of points to people who promote optimism; celebrate success; resolve conflicts; plan well but recognize, analyze and deal with failures; and above all, “reach out” to everyone around them.

Being smart is not enough for today’s managers.

Eric Zoeckler operates The Scribe, a business writing service. He also writes a weekly workplace column appearing Mondays in The Herald. He can be reached at 206-284-9566 or by e-mail to mrscribe@aol.com.

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